Luke Thompson hails 'provocative' Picture of Dorian Gray
Luke Thompson has explained what attracted him to The Picture of Dorian Gray for The Read.
Luke Thompson thinks The Picture of Dorian Gray is "still provocative and unsettling".
The 37-year-old actor recently recorded The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Read for the BBC, and Luke has now revealed what attracted him to the project.
He told Radio Times: "I’ve always been curious about why stories stick around. I’d heard about this book, and 140 years later, it’s still provocative and unsettling, and still thrills people. And if the page seems unappealing, having someone speak it to you can help bring the story to life. It takes us back to being a kid somehow, I think."
Luke believes that Oscar Wilde's philosophical novel, which was first published in 1890, remains as relevant as ever.
The actor reflected: "We seem to live in a moralising world where everyone is very keen on deciding what’s good and bad. We like to think we have moved on from the Victorians, but maybe we’ve just dressed up our moralising differently.
"This story asks: what if what’s moral is not as important as what’s beautiful. It’s a pretty wild thought to entertain, when we are so obsessed with justifying what’s right, wrong, productive, healthy or useful, and we’re not comfortable with beauty just for the hell of it. We say it’s superficial . A part of us can’t stand that beauty doesn’t need explaining, that it’s profound, maybe more profound than morals. This thriller takes that idea to its craziest limit."
Luke is best-known for playing Benedict Bridgerton in the hit Netflix series, and he can actually see some similarities between his Bridgerton character and Dorian Gray.
The actor - who first starred in Bridgerton back in 2020 - shared: "They’re very different worlds and characters, but I guess Benedict is by nature uncertain, quite open to influence, and seems in his own gentle way to have been driven more by beauty than by moral codes."
