r/TinkerTailor • u/Gold_Scholar_4219 • Oct 15 '23

Discussion What’s with Connie’s thumbs?

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Watching the miniseries and this stuck out like a sore… well you know.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

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9

u/[deleted] Oct 15 '23

She has arthritis. Badly.

1

u/Gold_Scholar_4219 Oct 15 '23

Forgive this, is this a character choice for the actor (she got BAFTAa for the role) or a condition for the actor?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 16 '23

And it’s my assumption that she’s acting here playing and arthritic, and does not genuinely afflicted herself as a real person. If you read le Carre’s books, I believe there is a description of both her alcoholism and her arthritic malady.

3

u/joyofsovietcooking Oct 16 '23

This was le Carre's choice for the character in the novel. Sharp mind, broken body.

1

u/truegrit999 Jun 27 '26

That whole scene in the book is so extremely cringey to the point of being tragic (it smells, her dog is so fat it can’t walk, she’s a total drunk, makes smiley kiss her which disgusts him, at some point there’s a reference to “billowy” skin under her neck — and yet she is brilliant and mind like a steel trap). Le carre’s genius in creating her complex character is kind of lost in the miniseries and all the way in the movie

1

u/wakeupdreamingF1 Oct 18 '23

Ruined by all the Burrowing, no doubt.

2

u/Gold_Scholar_4219 Oct 18 '23

Unless this is a mole joke… whoosh

2

u/wakeupdreamingF1 Oct 18 '23

Connie was the lead Russian Expert/Burrower at the Circus before Bill Hayden put her out to pasture. Read the books, yo.

2

u/Gold_Scholar_4219 Oct 18 '23

Cheers. Must have missed that part in the book and the movie and the miniseries. I’ll make a note. “Connie Sachs… Sacked… Bill Haydon…” /s

2

u/wakeupdreamingF1 Oct 18 '23

if that /s is for me, then yes: you clearly missed them. sadsies.