Viewers of British teenage drama Skins will know that Hollywood heartthrob Jack O’Connell is no stranger to getting naked for the sake of his art, and the 26-year-old Unbroken star is once again daring to go bare – this time for the London revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
In news that will surely put bums firmly on seats throughout the show’s 10-week run at the capital’s Apollo Theatre, it has emerged that Jack spends much of Tennessee Williams’ 1955 play – about a wealthy family living on a Mississippi plantation – in a partial or complete state of undress.
The opening scene of director Benedict Andrews’s updated production sees O’Connell’s sexually-repressed character of Brick sitting completely naked in the shower – and what’s more, it turns out the Derbyshire-born actor didn’t know he’d be flashing audiences quite so much flesh when he took on the role.
“It was just turning up to the rehearsal room and there was a pole on the stage representing the shower”, Jack told the Evening Standard.
Image: Johan Persson
“When you read the script you were led to believe the shower was off-stage, so it was a revelation to realise I would be starkers.”
Co-star Sienna Miller, who plays Jack’s onscreen wife Maggie – a role immortalised on screen by Elizabeth Taylor in Richard Brooks’ 1958 film adaptation – adds that the nude shower scene is “a brilliant way to start a West End show”.
We couldn’t agree more, Sienna.
The High-Rise star, 35, continued: “You’re in the shower and it tells you instantly what play you are watching and I think that’s the genius of Benedict, that this is our version and this is what it is going to be — so hold on.”
One of gay playwright Tennessee Williams’ most celebrated works, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof examines the extreme relationships of a wealthy plantation-owning family in 1950s America; notably dealing with themes of life, death, class and sexual repression.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is at London’s Apollo Theatre until October 7. For tickets click here.
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