Renegade nell gay
Nell Jackson didn’t position out to grow a highwaywoman; in fact, all she wanted to undertake was be a good soldier. Recently widowed, she returned to her hometown, where everyone idea she died with her husband. And when she returns, she returns a little…different. On her way into town, she’s held up by a highwayman, and a brief mote of not heavy goes into her mouth and imbues her with supernatural strength and speed and she’s proficient to get out of the jam all on her own. (Also this is neither here nor there, but there is currently another show about highwaymen called The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin that also features a highwaywoman named Nell, but apparently this is a complete coincidence, because while Dick Turpin was a genuine person, neither the Nell in that show nor Nell Jackson are.)
Played by Derry Girl Louisa Harland, Nell Jackson is a fierce, funny, sarcastic chick with no interest in behaving the way people of her time consider women should conduct oneself. Nell prefers wearing pants to skirts, and doesn’t protect if you mistake her for a man, as elongated as you don’t call her Nellie. But while she is clearly gender non-conforming for her time, the
Slight spoilers below for Disney+’s Renegade Nell
When my family left the movie theater at the mall in 1991, after spending 90 minutes soaking in the magic of The Little Mermaid, my parents said I was uncharacteristically quiet. My sister, who has a voice like an angel, was already singing the parts of the songs she could remember from the movie, and usually I'd be trying to harmonize with her, or telling her more words that I remembered, or talking over her with some jokes. My dad asked me what I idea about the music (great), about Ariel (so so great), about Prince Eric — and that's when my mom turned around to look in the back seat and declared loudly, for all the world to hear, that I was blushing. I, Heather Anne Hogan, a girl who, up until that point, seemed incapable of getting embarrassed, was blushing. My mom was thrilled. Absolutely beside herself with pleasure. She gasped. She squealed. She said that I, finally, had a crush on a boy! And I let her depart on thinking it because I didn't want to talk about what I was really noodling on.
I'd never had a affection on a boy, and I still didn't have a infatuation on a boy. I didn't like Prince Eric. I wanted to be Prince Eri
Louisa Harland: 'I acquire very defensive over the LGBT community'
Louisa Harland is trying to describe her new TV exhibit. After a lot of thought, she settles on “Pirates of the Caribbean meets The Goonies meets The Favourite”. Not that she knew that when she auditioned – “Everything was quite under wraps… I just had two scenes with very little context”. She knew one thing, though, and that was enough: “I was like, ‘Oh my god, Sally Wainwright’s doing a Disney show.’”
The demonstrate is Renegade Nell and, despite her own misgivings, the Derry Girls actress turned out to be perfect for an 18th-century highwaywoman with superpowers: “I obviously don’t hold a Cockney accent, I can’t complete a tumble and I can’t move a bike, authorize alone a horse… they really took a risk with me.” The series follows Nell, on the run after being framed for murder, as she takes on the aristocracy and the patriarchy, assisted by Billy Blind, “a pixie soulmate” played by Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed. Nell, says Harland, is “a normal teen who wants more for herself. Ambitious, stubborn.”
Viewers expecting the grit of Wainwright’s magnum opus Happy Valleywill instead discover a rollicking adventure
In Episode 6 of Disney+’s Renegade Nell, Polly Honeycombe (Ashna Rabher) quickly and (almost!) painlessly discovers that she is, in truth, gayer than originally planned. The episode features fantasy sequences and slow-motion shots that feel straight out of a romance novel, turning the titular Nell (Louisa Harland) into the white-shirted, rose-throwing heartthrob of both Polly and the audience’s dreams. It’s an extremely fun and playful way to make this series explicitly queer, but even before Nell and Polly shared that sudden and surprising lip-lock, queerness was already baked into the very DNA of Renegade Nell, making it a fantasy romp that feels like home in all the best ways.
From the very first episode, Renegade Nell goes a long way to start an undeniably queer undercurrent that carries through the rest of the series, most specifically with its leading hero. Now, Nell is never “confirmed” homosexual, but even the speak of of a deceased husband can’t completely dim the vibes that just radiate from this character. Frequently seen in trousers and refusing to conform to the standards for ladies of the time, she corrects anyone that calls her “Nelly” and staunchly refu