Y’all know I loves me some redheads! You may know her as Lily Potter in the Harry Potter movies, but I’ve got a soft spot for Irish actress Geraldine Somerville primarily for her role in one of the Lennox sisters in Aristocrats (she also sparkled in Gosford Park). I don’t see enough of her these days, but I’m glad to see she’s still working! Let’s look at her historical costume movie/TV work and hope for more.
Poirot: The Yellow Iris (1993)
I feel like every British actor has been in at least one episode of the 1930s-set murder mystery series. It’s kind of like Harry Potter, but TV!
Romeo & Juliet (1994)
Ooo, this looks BAD, but I would have loved to have had that hair when I was 15!
That’s Jonathan Firth, younger brother of Colin Firth!
Haunted (1995)
In 1920s England, an American professor (Aidan Quinn) encounters ghosts and Kate Beckinsale. Somerville plays his assistant.
If not for the hair, I’d be thinking 1960s-70s for that blouse!
Aristocrats (1999)
A wonderful look at four aristocratic British sisters in the mid-18th century. Somerville plays sweet, romantic Emily, who marries an Irish lord.
Along with Anne-Marie Duff, Serena Gordon, and Jodhi May, and a shitton of feathers!
I’m not sure if Emily was a redhead, but red hair definitely ran in the family.
LOVE this hairstyle!
Gosford Park (2001)
She plays Louisa Stockbridge, sister to Kristin Scott Thomas‘s character.
Lovely velvet!
She’s excellently fashionable.
Your sister’s husband hitting on you — ugh!
Daphne (2007)
A TV movie biopic about Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca.
That’s Janet McTeer on the left.
SUCH a pretty hairstyle!
My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Only in one short scene as Lady Jane Clark (wife of a BBC broadcaster). I saw this movie and thought it was “meh.” No one can capture Marilyn Monroe except the real Marilyn.
Looking great in green! With Eddie Redmayne.
Titanic (2012)
As the fictional Louisa, Countess of Manton, an Irish-born aristocrat and mother of the main female character.
I WANT EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS
Okay, but maybe not this part.
Headstrong daughters, amirite?
Quirke (2013-14)
A 1950s-set TV series about a Dublin pathologist (Gabriel Byrne) investigating murders.
Grace Of Monaco (2014)
In the Nicole Kidman biopic, she plays Prince Ranier’s older sister, Princess Antoinette of Monaco.
Great colors for the era and on her!
Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017)
As Lady O. She’s only in one scene and I can’t figure out who the hell that’s supposed to be! (Might help if I saw the movie, but, nah).
That is, however, a lovely 1910s evening dress.
Are you a Geraldine Somerville fan too?
The Aristocrats is my favourite.
I just love her. She’s so gorgeous.
Aristocrats would definitely be my favorite.
I just watched Christopher Robin and didn’t recognize her. She’s just the hostess at a party after WWI near the beginning.
Janet McTeer. Grrrowl
She was also in a Catherine Cookson adaptation of ‘The Black Velvet Gown’ set in the 1830s I think… before she was even in Poirot … love her x
She bears an uncanny resemblance to my sister in law https://www.nzso.co.nz/new-zealands-orchestra/meet-the-players/annemarie-meijers/
Haunted is as terrifying as the turn of the screw.
Definitely “Aristocrats,” especially when she and her Irish-lord fiance are playing footsy under the table. And when she ups and marries her children’s tutor.
Loved The Aristocrats. You know how a lot of movies can be evoked by a single line? (I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You had me at Hello. Etc.) In my head, Aristocrats is summed up by Geraldine lamenting about candles for her boytoy. “Wax, or tallow?”