Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1998) - "It's Too Late" scene

The most powerful scene in the A&E miniseries starring Justine Waddell and Oliver Milburn as Tess and Angel Clare. Very heartaching scene, beautifully acted.

[@Chatita2]

This is the best Period Drama ever made, and by far the best of the three (?) versions of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. To top it of, Justine Waddell is an incredible actress! The last scene in this version even made my 22-year old son cry!

[@irfanIG]

When I was reading the book, I could only see this Tess. Such a beauty with innocence.

[@femme434]

This is the best version of Tess I've seen love Justine waddells work

[@noahwayne7095]

WOW - Justine Waddell is breathtakingly beautiful - her acting in this, Wives and Daughters, and Great Expectations is amazing - why isn't she a bigger star?

[@OuttaEgypt]

There is no way that the 2008 version of this scene was better. Justine did a tremendous job with this scene, the way her eyes well up with tears, all the emotions you can read in her face. Superb stuff. Arterton's performance was decent throughout most the show but parts of her acting did make me cringe, such as in this scene where it was very forced and unconvincing. It lacked power. This is definitely the superior version. Nothing comes close to even touching it.

[@Sol-Cutta]

I thought similar your comments ..the expressions on her face was so ground in reality that they were sublime..whoever she is can really reach inside.

[@bestieedu]

This movie is so depressing, how both these men were so bad with her. One abused her innocence and then the other abandons hers because she made a mistake. I know he loved her, but she went through so much. :(

[@phantomwaltz]

Wow.. she's a wonderful actress. You can so tell that she's about to break into pieces, and she looks like she's going mad.. kind of scary actually

[@aliali-ce3yf]

she goes from stunned to tearfully crushed by the realization of it all to almost mad then finally cold, as if she wanted to punish angel (rightfully so)

[@Muirmaiden]

It's all in her eyes and in her facial expression. Acting doesn't have to be about tone of voice.

[@pinker9111]

Justine is just an amazing actress and played tess as just as I imagined. I love this verison better than 2008

[@SerenityAlways]

I agree. Waddell makes you feel like Tess has been driven a bit mad by her grief and circumstance in a more subtle, and tragic way.

[@AliHasan-vz8tc]

Everything Tess says with her eyes is heartbreaking - she looks stunned/sad and a touch unhinged. Angel is such a moron. Justine Waddell did a terrific job.

[@user-hu5wi9lr3f]

So true, I couldn't have said it better myself. Her reaction is so realistic it brings me to tears each time I watch it thinking for a moment it's me 😭😖

[@aliali-ce3yf]

@@user-hu5wi9lr3f 2:47 - she conveys so much emotion with just her eyes

[@RGDCanada]

Justine is just incomparable

[@bluerosesteph]

One of the saddest scenes I have ever seen on film... brilliant

[@inbloombtfl]

Basically. Because Angel left her without any means of support, she had to compromise her integrity and dignity to take care of her family by giving in to Alec. "It's too late" means he returned too late to make a difference; her choices have been made. She wants to be done with him, but...apparently not, as you see by the rest of the movie/book.

[@maxn.7234]

Actually, Angel left her with a decent amount of money and told her to write to his father if she ever was in need, but she was too proud to do as he suggested. Nonetheless, Alec did help both Tess and her family, which earned her gratitude. I found the ending of her killing Alec weird. I think in real life she would have stayed with him once he honored his word to to care for her.

[@kikyo4ever]

My heart broke for Tess. I cry like a baby. Justine played the role so well. She's the best Tess. I hate Angel. He doesn't deserve her. Was it too let because she was no longer the same?

[@-Thunder-Warrior-]

Every time, every bloody time it gets me! If only Angel had forgiven her straight away and not left it sevral years! Ah! Hardy really plays with his characters lives!

[@CancerousPiesRTasty]

*sigh* i love justine waddell. she's so great.

[@rees276]

Justine Waddell is my favourite Tess. She looks so delicate and vulnerable - and she is heartbreaking in these final scenes. eddie Redmayne is the only actor who has given Angel any redeeming features on screen though. I felt sorry for him at the end of the recent BBC version, but Peter Firth and Oliver Milburn played him the way I found him in the novel - arrogant, self-righteous, smug, selfish, cruel...

[@aliali-ce3yf]

4:06 - her heartache, her despair......its so palpable. Easily the best adaptation of the story.

[@bluerosesteph]

It breaks my heart every single time.... saddest scene i've seen no exageration

[@inbloombtfl]

Hi. I completely agree. Not to mention this version of the scene is pretty much verbatim to the book. None of that "I'm already dead" stuff. Too melodramatic for me.

[@noomwa]

Dang, she's sooo good in this role.

[@iggyreilly2463]

I read the novel years ago and remember thinking Tess in this scene was cold, resigned, and aloof. That simply too much water had gone under the bridge and her pastoral innocence and purity of heart had finally succumbed, never to return. Here, Tess is played (very well) with far more emotion and I don't think it works as well as in my imagination.

[@Sarah-ob2rz]

Did this text in my high sch & the first time I read it, I cried like a baby. I lied to my colleagues that I had a headache

[@mayflowersoapqueen]

Alec and Angel totally drove Tess mad. You can tell how fragile she is in this scene. If only Angel had gotten over it sooner, then they could have been happy, but NO... he had to be stupid and poor Tess had to pay the price. Great scene though.

[@dawnrazor7]

oh dear this is quite emotional!!

[@misschantelle1000]

this this acting is class

[@Sol-Cutta]

I knew very briefly a gypsy girl who was the spitting image of this. She was my cousin's best friend. We never spoke much , I don't believe she even knew I existed past someone sat in the same space here and there...what a beautiful face.

[@131986zm]

this scene is bittersweet for me. i hate that angel hurt her sooooooooooo badly but the bastard had it coming. what did you expect of her. but i relent in the end and my heart breaks for tess, always tess. great acting

[@mamoonamamoona8557]

Wife abandonment, the marriage was not consummated, Angel ruined her life. Justine was perfect in this role, playing a naive innocent woman.

[@8rin]

love it!

[@Sol-Cutta]

I'd like to read the book of this now.

[@Muirmaiden]

This version is "wooden"? Milburn emotes far more than Redmayne did in the entire miniseries! Yes, Arterton did a great job in the latest version, but Waddell is good in her own right. The "too late" scene in the BBC mini was way too rushed.

[@VreeFisions]

...and the voice.

[@KissesFromHeaven07]

The new version and the olds all seem sad to me, though I haven't seen all the versions, the story( I read a summary) is sad in itself to me.........This poor girl has been through all these emotionally rollercoasters and it's just sad.

[@aliali-ce3yf]

3:12 - she has to be one of the most gorgeous women ever, especially with her voice Angel should've never left for Brazil

[@roytuber]

Just finished the book again - for the second time

[@xmissriddlex]

shes pretty, good actress.

[@Muirmaiden]

@licklelaurz , the way Tess is dressed in this version - and in the 1979 Polanski film for that matter - fits the description of her attire in the novel.

[@myzaichev]

Wow, they really stuck to the book. Except I'm not so sure Angel ever blatantly voiced Hardy's main theme like that...

[@olivia1ohh3]

yeah could you upload the movie please??!!

[@femme434]

Alec from the 2008 version n Tess from 1998 would been a great trio

[@Marcel_Audubon]

Puke 🤢🤮 that 2008 actor stunk

[@licklelaurz]

when i read the book it said that alec controlled the way she dressed and that he wanted her to be his object and sexier

[@lill2441]

its get to me too. If only he had gotten over it sooner, if only if only...

[@Muirmaiden]

@cullen414twilight , I like the 2008 version as well, just not as much as this one. All three films of "Tess" are good in their own way. I just happen to like this one the most. To each their own.

[@Marcel_Audubon]

No, not to each their own. The 2008 version is inferior in every way. It is a universally accepted truth like the sun rising in the East.

[@Muirmaiden]

@@Marcel_AudubonIt's called an opinion. Get over it.

[@Marcel_Audubon]

@@Muirmaiden The 2008 version is inferior in every way. It is a universally accepted truth like water is wet.

[@byrnes22]

i dont know if this version is better than the polanski film but this moment is perfection. i saw the 2008 version and it's fine but it cant even compare to this clip. she's wonderful.

[@trinigir14]

so sad!

[@Muirmaiden]

@legoeggo8, Oliver Milburn.

[@homeric85]

Anyone has the last scene?

[@Muirmaiden]

@pinkdiamonde, I think Eddie is better suited to earlier period drama (The Other Boleyn Girl, Elizabeth: The Golden Age), I enjoyed his performances and believed in the characters he played - I felt he was miscast as Angel in the 2008 BBC adaptation of Tess - whether it was the way he was directed, his interpretation of the role or a combination of the two, he just didn't work as Angel for me - when he emoted he was good, but when it came to the dialogue he came across as dim-witted, IMO.

[@deedeedmr]

...and the jawline and the dimple.

[@missbabyice]

Really like this Angel. 2008 one was all scrawny and wet.

[@crayzee652]

do you know any other parts to the story or did you just happen to come across this clip? i'll try 2 not make this too long-winded lol.. erm.. basically angel and tess got married but then she told him about her past -

[@idilali]

please to post this for us,, it would be much appreciated

[@elizabethgaskelfan]

excuses excuses.

[@Elanester]

LoL....put yourself in her postition and tell me if you wouldnt feel melodramatic lol...I like the 'already dead' part because it shows she's not there because she wants to...She's dead, she doesn't feel anything...and that is why she can stand be near that man...If she felt 'alive' I doubt she would be there... This version is very good..I like that they actually have a conversation...But the newer version has that feeling of dispair the characters were probably feeling...

[@susanb2015]

Life Sucks and then you Die.

[@pianotutorialsthemes]

but no one can beat eddie redmayne

[@Marcel_Audubon]

he was awful in this role. Awful.

[@hobojon]

I think Gemma Arterton rocked this scene in the latest version, whereas this one is so subdued and almost wooden Arterton and Redmayne brought out the anguish and frustration of their long separation.

[@Marcel_Audubon]

You are incorrect. The 2008 version was the worst version ever made. In every respect.

[@jesbear6]

what about the eyes...

[@deedeedmr]

lol. I second that. I had to read it for AP eng. back in high school. I watched it then too. so so so depressing, but I love Angel. He's beautiful.

[@crayzee652]

oh and also whats worse is that he's bein hypocritical coz he told her, after they got married, that he had somethin 2 confess n it was that he'd had some relationship with some woman. n coz he confessed that thats why Tess felt she cud tell him about Alec n the baby... and she forgave him for his relationship but he couldn't forgive her. so yeh therefore angel is in some senses a weak stupid man.. and not very angelic. [by the way i hope u understood all of that!]

[@stargirlsusan]

in my opinion the other version was better

[@crayzee652]

that alec raped her [or she might have just told him that she had sexual relations with him or whatever ppl frm that time wud hav sed] n that she had his baby. then the baby died etc. anyway angel left her after hearing this, so i guess that's y ppl r callin him weak n stupid.

[@rachray83]

@OuttaEgypt I disagree. The 2008 version of this scene was better. this scene was a little too calm. She says "I hate him" the same way she says the rest fo the lines. To me the 98 version, the actors seem like they are acting like the characters, where in the 2008 version the actors are living the lives of the characters, they became them. The 98 version makes me feel like I'm watching a play

[@music2themax4me]

i really want to see it!! what happens?! why did some ppl call angel a weak stupid man??

[@aliali-ce3yf]

because when things got tough and the perfect image he had of tess in his head didn't match up with reality , he got spooked and ditched her..........forgetting she was always a wonderful woman. he left her for no real reason and in the process lost out on the best thing that ever happened to him.

[@ToDrunkToDance]

OMG, When my sister told me what happened in the end of the new version of this. I was like "WTF!" Why did he leave her? =[ Why did she have to die, god sake, why did she end up being a mistress. My god I hate television, I cant watch the rest of them knowing that she dies and he runs of with her sister, and that its his fault because he couldnt just stay with her. They loved each other? She didnt deserve it =[[! I really really was proper upset! How sad is that!? I didnt want her to die!!!!

[@phantomwaltz]

but if she had told him about not being a virgin before the marriage, things might not have gone so downhill. but yeah the guys were both b*stards. tess was too gullible and easily swayed also

[@mehandas]

This is hoorible. I just finished the book today. This isn't my tess , this isn't my angel. And this was not how it happened....

[@sacdigitaldesignweb]

Nothing is comparable to Polanski’s version

[@user-gz8xo2ub8g]

Настасья Кински лучше

[@licklelaurz]

i think shes dressed all wrong she is supposed to be sexier like in the newer version!

[@cullen414twilight]

i read the responses to this version of the tess...i look & look to you see what you guys see when you guys say you guys can see the emotions spilling out this scene all i see is confusion...Im sorry but this tess sucks throughout the whole movie instead of love she just looks confuse ALL ThE TiME! 2008 version is the best...go ahead talk about username or how i dont know what im talking heard it all before.

[@joydarling314]

Angel just shows up after being away for awhile that explains her confusion.