Tessa Thompson | Take Ten - video Dailymotion

Deadline

Connect with Deadline online! https://www.facebook.com/deadline/ https://twitter.com/DEADLINE https://www.instagram.com/deadline/ https://www.youtube.com/Deadline

Transcript

00:00Were there any surprising similarities between me and Hedda?

00:03Oh, God, probably, but I don't want to admit.

00:07Hi, I am Tessa Thompson, and I am going to take ten with you.

00:12Goodbye.

00:18No need to be so upset.

00:19Upset?

00:20Hedda.

00:21See for yourself.

00:23This state of mortal panic is akin to this.

00:27Immortal Panic on mic.

00:28Don't relax.

00:29Eileen, she only asks the test men look after you at the university.

00:33Look after me?

00:34Make sure you stay out of trouble.

00:35Hedda, please.

00:36Like a babysitter.

00:37I mean, I suppose so.

00:38Sort of.

00:39What are you doing?

00:40Me?

00:41After everything we've been through.

00:43You run here and you involve my colleague and my business.

00:46He must think of...

00:50From the academics to the gossipy ladies at the corner.

00:56Coward at heart.

00:59Hedda has been described as the female Hamlet.

01:02Do you agree?

01:03And if so, why?

01:04Yeah, that is true.

01:05I think it's because Hedda is a very historical part in theater.

01:10And it's one of the greats and canon.

01:12And there's frankly not that many for women.

01:14And I guess maybe the Hamlet comparison has to do with this very complicated figure with a looming father figure as well.

01:24And just the complexity of those two people.

01:26But I didn't think about it like that.

01:28I think that Hamlet is the female Hedda.

01:31What are my favorite things about Nia DaCosta's interpretation of the story?

01:34So many things.

01:35I feel like for people that are Hedda Gabler enthusiasts, this will be exciting because there's so many things that are very different.

01:41But for people that don't have a relationship to Hedda Gabler, I think it's a story that sort of stands on its own.

01:46One of my favorite things about Hedda, as Nia conceived it, is that it really is about these three complicated women.

01:54And Hedda just happens to be one of them because Nia took a part that historically is a man and gender swapped it.

02:02And I think it makes for a story that explores female rage and female paths to personhood in a really complicated, interesting way.

02:12And kind of in a deeper way than Ibsen.

02:15Sorry, Ibsen.

02:16Hedda is not afraid to stir things up.

02:18She doesn't want to live an ordinary life.

02:21Did that influence you in any way?

02:23This is complicated, but she does some things that maybe are unsavory in the course of the evening.

02:30And she wakes up in a life that she doesn't feel comfortable in, that doesn't fit her.

02:37And I think she wants to sort of destroy everything so she can build up again.

02:43And while I'm not sure that some of the things that she does on the way are admirable, necessarily, I think the desire to live a life that feels like it's yours and that fits you is a really beautiful thing.

02:56And I think it's complicated to know what that life is sometimes if you're too hemmed in by other people's expectations of you.

03:02Sometimes you can put expectations on yourself and it's actually not really what you want.

03:09And I think that's been something that I have wrestled with a lot since making the film and she gave that to me.

03:18And also not being afraid to take up space.

03:20She takes a lot of space.

03:22And for some of us that can feel challenging and you should take up space, you know.

03:27What can we all learn from Head of Story?

03:29I think precisely that, you know, she sort of cuts her desires off and her instincts off.

03:36And that's kind of death by increments.

03:39And I think something that we can learn is that we have this, as trite as it sounds, we have this one life and we should live it.

03:48And try to allow ourselves to be the fullest expression of who we are.

03:53Because things get funky when you don't do that.

03:56And I think that things get funky for Head of Story because of it.

04:00Okay, a fun off camera memory from the set of Head of.

04:04There are so many.

04:05One of the delights of this movie is that it's a big kind of raucous party.

04:11So we were drinking a lot of fake martinis.

04:13We did not drink on set because the hours were too long.

04:15But we did play a lot of games.

04:17And so there was this little tent that we had outside of the house.

04:20Because we were shooting in this old manor house where there were so many rules about where you could be.

04:24We could only hang out in this like dog room.

04:27But otherwise, we had this big tent outside of the house.

04:32And we played a lot of games in there.

04:35I wasn't always in there because I was on set a lot.

04:38But the whole cast would basically be in there.

04:40And there were some really intense games of Uno.

04:43And that little tent was called Casino Royale.

04:46And we are to this day all on a big WhatsApp thread.

04:50And we text a lot on Casino Royale.

04:52Very, very fun vibe in there.

04:54If Hedda were alive in 2025, what would her Instagram bio say?

05:01Would she have an Instagram, do you think?

05:03I'm like, would she be?

05:04Or you know what she would have is a Finsta.

05:06She'd have like a private Insta.

05:09Although she's like a society girl.

05:12Honestly, I hate to say this.

05:14Please don't come for me.

05:16Because I do have an Instagram.

05:17Would she be an influencer?

05:19It might have not been a bad pathway for her.

05:23She might have been an influencer.

05:24Okay.

05:25One of my favorite lines in the movie is,

05:27the best time to leave a party is after something terrible's happened,

05:31but before the police come.

05:32So I think that could be a good thing to put in your Instagram bio.

05:35She might be like a party planner.

05:37I don't know.

05:38I think, yeah.

05:39She'd either have no Instagram or multiple Instagrams.

05:42You're returning to the role of Bianca in Creed.

05:44What can you tell us about it?

05:45Absolutely nothing.

05:46I'm sworn to secrecy.

05:47I don't, I don't, I truly don't know anything.

05:49So if you guys get the scoop, will you tell me what's happening in Creed 4?

05:53I don't want to know.

05:54What's a movie you watch again and again and never get bored of?

05:58Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

06:00I could watch it.

06:01I watch it all the time.

06:03I watch it at least once a year.

06:05I could watch it more and I never ever get sick of it.

06:07A movie that makes me cry.

06:09There are many.

06:11Cinema Paradiso.

06:12But I always cry in When Harry Met Sally, which is another movie that I watch again.

06:17But when he says, when you know what you want to do with the rest of your life, you want

06:20the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.

06:23Gets me.

06:24What has acting taught me about human behavior that surprises me?

06:30One thing that I really love about my job is it connects me.

06:33And one thing I love about watching film and television is I feel like it helps me connect

06:38to my own humanity and makes me feel less alone in the things that I think and feel and wrestle

06:45with.

06:46And something I love about getting to tell stories is I feel like it always makes me have to expand

06:51my own humanity.

06:53And this job for me always connects me to the fact that we are more similar than we are

07:01different as people.

07:02And that we as humans, and Hedda really taught me this, have the capacity for so much.

07:08We have the capacity for such warmth and beauty and humility and kindness.

07:14And we also have the capacity for real ugliness.

07:17And I think that exists in every single one of us.

07:20The only thing that is very different is our circumstances.

07:23And I think that that makes a world of difference.

07:26And when you connect to that, at least for me, it allows me to be a lot more empathetic,

07:30particularly towards people that have different views as me or do different things than me.

07:36It allows me to see them as not that different than me fundamentally as humans.

07:42Okay.

07:43If I got to host a late night show for one night, who are my first two guests?

07:47Oof.

07:48This is important business because late night isn't, it's a crucial time for late night.

07:55We got to keep it alive, everybody.

07:58I would, okay.

08:00Willem Dafoe, because I love him so much.

08:04Willem Dafoe, Doshi is the musical guest, but also on the couch.

08:10And Martha Stewart.

08:12That's what I want.

08:14Because I just want to hang out.

08:16I want to be friends with those people.

08:18I met Martha Stewart and I did not play cool at all.

08:21It went terribly.

08:22I was just like, hi.

08:23She's like, hi.

08:24But she did make me a margarita and it was delicious and very strong.

08:29If you could steal any costume from your characters, what would it be?

08:33I'm still sad I never stole Valkyrie's boots.

08:36I love those.

08:37They're so heavy, too.

08:39They're like the kind of boots that you can't pack in your luggage you have to wear.

08:43But they also have a lot of metal on them, so that would be challenging going through TSA.

08:47But I do regret that I never stole those boots.

08:50They're like vaulted somewhere.

08:52I have the daggers, though, and I have a sword, which Taika gave me for my birthday.

08:56So I do have those, which is good.

08:59What's the first line you ever memorized from a script you still remember?

09:02Oh, that's such a good question.

09:05I used to be able to do all of Romeo and Juliet, not just my lines, but every character in it from start to finish.

09:11But that was a very long time ago and I can't do that anymore.

09:14I do remember I did a play and I had to speak French in it.

09:19This, for some reason, was the first thing that came to mind.

09:21I think I was so nervous about speaking French.

09:23And the line I had to say was,

09:26Which is, listen to me, Dad.

09:28And now it's one of the only things I always know how to say in French, which gets weird if you try to pull that out.

09:34If you weren't acting, what do you think you'd be doing?

09:38I mean, now I'm producing a lot more and producing things that I'm also not in,

09:42which has been such a joy with my company, Viva Mod, and my partner, Koshori Rajan, which is a gift.

09:47So I really like doing that.

09:49I'd probably be doing that.

09:50I'll probably always do that, I think, now.

09:52But I really like arranging flowers.

09:55And I would really like to be, to have, to have like a, yeah, I would like to do something like that.

10:03And, and grow, I don't know how to grow anything yet.

10:07But I'd love to grow things.

10:09Maybe some combination of growing things and arranging flowers would be a nice thing.

10:13But I could also just do that.

10:14I don't know why, I don't know why we think about it.

10:16I should just start doing that.

10:18I'm gonna just start doing that.

10:20So this, I'm retiring now, Deadline.

10:22And I make flowers.

10:25Thank you so much for hanging out with me in this red chair.

10:28Next time I will do my type five for you.

10:30Thanks, Deadline.

10:31You're the best.

10:33The End

Tessa Thompson | Take Ten

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended