“I was told I have a face suited for a bygone era. You know how it is. Back then there were no Botox or Invisalign, and I’ve never plumped my lips or adjusted my teeth. I don’t have the ‘TikTok face’.” Ella Bruccoleri is blunt, she laughs, and she’s a gentle whirlwind when she explains why she’s so often cast in period dramas. Born in Scarborough, United Kingdom, in 1996 but with a father of Italian roots (specifically from Calatafimi in Sicily), she has, somewhat unwillingly, found herself repeatedly drawn to the period drama genre, from The Last Kingdom to Call the Midwife, where she played for four years the young Sister Frances, followed by Hotel Portofino, All Creatures Great and Small, a small role in Bridgerton, up to Mary Bennet, the heroine of The Other Bennet Sister – Pride and Redemption, the new series available from September 26, 2026 exclusively on Sky and streaming only on NOW, with two episodes released weekly. We met her last June at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, and with her we talked about the new series and her character, but also about the desire to explore roles and genres that are very different in the future.
The Other Bennet Sister: The series that tells the forgotten sister of Pride and Prejudice
The Other Bennet Sister – Pride and Redemption imagines what could happen if Mary Bennet, for once, stopped being a secondary character and became the heroine of her own story. The series, created by Sarah Quintrell and Maddie Dai, is based on the novel The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow, published in Italy by PIEMME. In ten episodes, The Other Bennet Sister places at the center of the action one of the more marginal figures in Jane Austen’s universe and follows Mary on her journey out from Longbourn, from the Regency London salons to the hills and valleys of the Lake District. Her journey is one of seeking independence, self-acceptance, and the possibility of reinventing her life.
The strength of Mary Bennet, finally the lead
For two centuries Mary Bennet has remained in the shadows. In Pride and Prejudice she is the sister who watches, studies, quotes books, and constantly tries to prove her knowledge, often seeming pedantic, awkward, and out of place. She lacks the charm of Jane, the irony of Elizabeth, or Lydia’s exuberance. She is, simply, different. And it is precisely this difference that won Ella Bruccoleri over. “I think she’s such an unconventional protagonist,” she tells us. “If Mary Bennet knew she were the lead of a TV series, she wouldn’t be at all comfortable. She wouldn’t like it,” she adds with a smile. The actress isn’t trying to make Mary more likable or closer to traditional heroine models. On the contrary, she preserves her rough edges. “She’s really moralistic, thinks she knows it all, full of facts and information, always a bit hunched. And simply not like all those charming and brilliant women we see on screen,” she explains.
“You don’t have to grow more feminine to be considered attractive”
But it is precisely this aspect that Bruccoleri identifies as the character’s strength. “I think it’s quite rare to have characters who don’t fit into this very traditional model of femininity”, she says. Mary isn’t a woman who seeks to please everyone and she doesn’t need to transform herself to be accepted. “You don’t have to become more accommodating or more feminine to be considered attractive,” the actress adds. In other words, Mary doesn’t have to become someone else to find her place in the world.
A new idea for a heroine in The Other Bennet Sister
At the story’s outset, Mary remains almost invisible. She speaks little, observes a lot, and communicates mainly through looks. For Bruccoleri, this was one of the most intriguing challenges of the role. “In the early episodes, when she doesn’t speak much, I had to convey a lot of thoughts without any dialogue,” she notes. Her job, therefore, was one of subtraction. Then something changes. Mary gradually leaves the familial sphere and, especially after the first three episodes, finds people with whom she can engage on an intellectual level. “She finds people to confide in and is able to express herself more,” Bruccoleri explains.
To prepare for the role, the actress worked with social etiquette and movement consultant Lucy Pankhurst, learning the rules a Regency-era woman would have to observe: how to sit, how to move, how to greet. But Mary, according to the actress, is exactly the sort of person who struggles to accept a rule simply because it exists. “For her, if something isn’t logical, there’s no real reason to do it. She doesn’t follow the rules,” she notes. This is probably why Mary feels so contemporary. She isn’t a rebel built to our modern templates but a woman who simply cannot accept what she doesn’t understand. Mary is far from the flawless female lead: she is pedantic, uncomfortable, capable of mistakes, and not always likeable. Yet this, Bruccoleri argues, is what makes her so fascinating: “It’s wonderful to see a woman who is like that and who, despite everything, seems to be loved and accepted.”
Ella Bruccoleri, beyond the period drama
And if The Other Bennet Sister marks an important new milestone in Bruccoleri’s career, the actress does not hide the desire to explore in the future territories that are very different. Among her references she mentions French cinema and the social realism of directors like Shane Meadows and Ken Loach. “I enjoy writing that sounds like the way people truly speak in real life, with people interrupting each other and talking over one another,” she says. Then there is music, another significant part of her artistic identity. Bruccoleri is also a singer-songwriter and describes music as a kind of refuge. “I find it easier than acting. When I’m in the studio writing songs or making music, I feel more at ease. I feel I can lose myself in the music and switch off my brain a bit,” she confesses.
To us, Ella Bruccoleri came across as an artist who is both confident in her potential and profoundly curious to explore characters, stories, and languages that are always different. And so we can only wish that she never gives in to the lure of the infamous Instagram face, preserving precisely that naturalness and authenticity that, today more than ever, seem to be her most recognizable hallmark.
Enter NOW and watch The Other Bennet Sister – Pride and Redemption
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