美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Gentleman Jack' Swaggers Off The Page And Onto The Screen

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

HBO's new period drama "Gentleman Jack¹" is set in the 1830s. And it tells the extraordinary story of Anne Lister - landowner, businesswoman, mountaineer and also called the first modern lesbian. Lister came from a wealthy family in Halifax, England, and began recording² her love affairs with women in coded entries in her diary. Eventually, she would live openly with her neighbor Ann Walker as a couple.

Her explicit³ diaries remained a secret until the 1980s. And in 2011, the journals were named by UNESCO as a pivotal document in British history. The HBO adaptation looks at her relationship with Ann Walker and her defiant⁴ embrace of her sexual orientation⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GENTLEMAN JACK")

SURANNE JONES: (As Anne Lister) Then you do know that I could never marry a man - not for any reason, under any circumstance. It would be perverse⁶. I thoroughly⁷ intend to spend my evening out with someone who loves me, someone who is there all of the time to share everything with, not someone who just drops in every now and then whenever her irritable⁸ husband permits it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Anne Lister is played by Suranne Jones, who joins us now from our New York bureau.

Welcome to the program.

JONES: Hi, Lulu.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I want to talk about how you approached this character because she is so complex. She's strong. She's poised⁹. She's unwavering. She is this real trailblazer. And yet, of course, she has a lot of other things inside of her, as all people do. How did you maneuver¹⁰ the complexities¹¹ of Anne Lister?

JONES: So when I got the part, I said, I need all the information that I could possibly get. I think sometimes when you get a part, you're almost cooked. You're ready to go, and you know that you can start spinning plates and put your stamp on things. But with this, I was a work in progress. And I was going to have to put a lot of work in. First, with the research - there are about four books that are very comprehensive texts about Anne Lister, so I kind of pored through them. I was able to visit Halifax library and actually take out one of Anne Lister's original diaries...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Wow.

JONES: ...And read that for myself, which was a real emotional experience because I'm touching¹² the paper that she had her hands all over.

And then the code itself and parts of the diary still hadn't been decoded¹³. So it was being decoded especially for us as we filmed, which was really exciting. We'd get an email, and it was kind of, like, live as we were filming scenes in the end, that - where we were getting pieces of information that had never been seen before, which felt really raw and exciting and fresh. The experience of that really allowed her to get into my bones every single day on set.

And then of course, we worked on my physicalities, which are quite unique (laughter).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, they are. I mean, you embody¹⁴ her with this kind of physical push forward. I mean, she sort of is this huge larger-than-life figure that, every time she's on the screen, kind of takes it over just by her presence. Did - was that something that you deliberately¹⁵ tried to sort of encapsulate? How did - I mean, how did you know that that was how she might have been?

JONES: From the diaries - there's pieces of information that we had that she walked fast and she walked up right. She was mistaken for her masculinity. She had a low voice. She looked like an oddity. She was very striking. She always wore black in mourning for an ex-girlfriend that she lost to a man - to a marriage. So by the time we meet her, she's been wearing black for 16 years.

And she was fiercely intelligent. And she had to be larger than life. She had to be a presence that - anyone who knows the diaries can feel it when they read it off the page. And I really wanted to encapsulate that on screen.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I want to play a clip now from a scene in the third episode where Anne is talking to her aunt.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GENTLEMAN JACK")

JONES: (As Anne Lister) Nature played a challenging trick on me, didn't she - putting a bold spirit like mine in this vessel¹⁶ in which I'm obliged to wear frills and petticoats. Well, I refuse to be cowed by it.

GEMMA JONES: (As Aunt Anne Lister) People can be very cruel.

JONES: (As Anne Lister) Shame on them.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: She is very certain of who she is and unashamed despite the censure¹⁷ of the time.

JONES: She was true to her nature. She never wavered from wanting to, in her words again, love and only love the fairer sex. She felt like it was her God-given nature to do that. She was authentic¹⁸ in that way, and she had no blueprint¹⁹. There was no communities. Lesbian wasn't a word then.

But she just was striking in the way that she knew exactly who she wanted to be and kind of hid in plain sight because she was able to dress the way she dressed, and she was able to conduct her love affairs - albeit²⁰ usually away from home. And Ann Walker was on her doorstep, which is - makes the telling of this story quite different.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What do you think we should take away from Anne Lister's story in this day and age?

JONES: I think whether you're part of the LGBTQIA community or not, I think that Anne Lister is trailblazing. She's uplifting. She's life-affirming. She's courageous²¹. And she believes that everyone has a voice and deserves to be themselves and to speak it. And I think in this climate that we need more stories like that and also that a younger audience - or just our audience - can look to and say - well, that's me; that's how I feel; I'd like to be like that. And I think there's not quite enough stories like that.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It sounds like playing her was a profound experience for you.

JONES: I think. My husband bought me a T-shirt that says - what would Anne Lister do? And there was another actress that spoke²² to me - said, you should be more like her. You know, it really suits you. And I wish I was because it's really changed me, and I think it might - albeit quietly - change quite a few other people's lives as well.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Suranne Jones plays Anne Lister in the new HBO TV series "Gentleman Jack."

Thank you so much.

JONES: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

4 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

5 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

6 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

7 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。

8 irritable   

adj.急躁的；过敏的；易怒的

参考例句：

• He gets irritable when he's got toothache.他牙一疼就很容易发脾气。
• Our teacher is an irritable old lady.She gets angry easily.我们的老师是位脾气急躁的老太太。她很容易生气。

9 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

10 maneuver   

n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略

参考例句：

• All the fighters landed safely on the airport after the military maneuver.在军事演习后，所有战斗机都安全降落在机场上。
• I did get her attention with this maneuver.我用这个策略确实引起了她的注意。

11 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

12 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

13 decoded   

v.译（码），解（码）( decode的过去式和过去分词 )；分析及译解电子信号

参考例句：

• The control unit decoded the 18 bits. 控制器对这18位字进行了译码。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Scientists have decoded the dog genome. 科学家已经译解了狗的基因组。 来自辞典例句

14 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

15 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

16 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

17 censure   

v./n.责备；非难；责难

参考例句：

• You must not censure him until you know the whole story.在弄清全部事实真相前不要谴责他。
• His dishonest behaviour came under severe censure.他的不诚实行为受到了严厉指责。

18 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

19 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

20 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

21 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。

22 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。