Tessa Thompson & 'Hedda' Cast on Reinventing 'Hedda' from Stage to Screen | TIFF 2025 - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Director Nia DaCosta and stars Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss, Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman and Nicholas Pinnock explore the differences between the 'Hedda' script and the original 'Hedda Gabler' play at THR's TIFF suite at the 1 Hotel in Toronto. Hoss and Bateman give insight into how they compared their work in the original play to their work now in the film. While Pinnock and Thompson discuss their view on all the different interpretations and how they used them towards their performance.

Transcript

00:00It's like you you kind of explore the material in such a different way and

00:06it's so freeing and just by this little twist that it's all of a sudden it's a

00:11woman. It changes the whole dynamic of the, I don't want to say play, of the film.

00:17Should we all move to the English countryside and just change roles?

00:21Do you have like a point at which a certain audience reaction lets you know that the

00:32people, it's a good audience, they're locked in and they get it?

00:35I think about the first laugh in a movie, even if it's not a comedy, because then you're

00:38like okay they're in. It's the only way you really know, because you know people

00:43like you can feel the tension, it's like you can't. But you can feel the release

00:47of tension. And the first laugh in a film is when I'm like okay cool, it works.

00:53Do you know what you think the first laugh could be or would be in this film?

00:56Oof. I mean it could be when you, I mean I don't want to say what it is, but it could

01:01be quite early, it could be quite dark actually.

01:03Oh right. Yeah.

01:04But also you can't hear a smile.

01:06Exactly.

01:07You count those, you count those.

01:09Has anyone seen the play?

01:12I was in the movie.

01:14And he was in it too.

01:20And he was in it.

01:21I was in it too.

01:22Have you seen it?

01:23I've seen it.

01:24In a different version of it.

01:25I saw the Ivor Van Ho, Ruth Wilson one.

01:27I saw that one.

01:28I missed that one.

01:29Yeah, yeah.

01:30I've seen that one, the recording of it.

01:31Oh yeah, no yeah, I went along.

01:33When you decide you're going to be in this movie, do you go back to all of that and look

01:37at it again or do you try to erase any memory you have of the way anyone else did it?

01:42I watched a lot of productions and then I tried to erase them all.

01:47Yeah, I thought it was, I don't know, I couldn't not because I just felt, I had enough time

01:52and I wanted to sort of devour and be in the world and understand different interpretations.

01:57So it was very fun.

02:00I've never had the pleasure of getting to see it on stage.

02:02Sometimes you look at things and you just get a little feeling, I can't even say that

02:07it's an inspiration, it's just you see what's possible, how you can interpret things and

02:13sometimes even one sentence or so you go, ah, that's what, okay, okay.

02:17But then you go back to your own interpretation and you think, do I want to do it that way or

02:21not?

02:22I want to play a version of Hedda because I think she's just so complex and so kind of

02:28dynamic in the way that she maneuvers her way in this world, you know.

02:33And I thought, wow, you don't really see many characters like that.

02:39And I'd certainly never played a character like that before.

02:41I thought, I'm siding with Hedda.

02:43I'd love to see her at Hedda.

02:44You too.

02:45Me too.

02:46What I loved so much about Nia's was like straight away reading, even the first two pages, I

02:54went, oh, this is so different.

02:56It's such a confident her own thing that I thought, oh, this is just not even, don't

03:01even think, you don't even need to worry about thinking about those other productions.

03:04But yeah, to your point of it was super interesting playing Love Borg on stage and then coming into

03:11playing George here just because of the rivalry between the two, how George feels about Love

03:16Borg.

03:17And I thought, God, it's such a, I don't know how you felt in the film playing it, but

03:21it was such a comfortable, enjoyable like position to hold that Love Borg.

03:26Everyone's talking about Love Borg before they turn up.

03:29And then when you do like fully aware of the impact that even just the presence of turning

03:34up has, whereas to be George and the second you walk in going, my world is falling apart

03:40before my eyes.

03:41My biggest fears are being realized before my very eyes.

03:45So it was actually, for a character you feel very sort of panicked, but as an actor it's

03:50really, really fun to like change shoes and just go, oh my God, from this point of view

03:55is really, really fun.

03:56That was the amazing thing because my character is in the play a man and now Eileen is a woman.

04:03Like in the scenes with Tasman, that was something so surprising to me that there was actually

04:09all of a sudden could be the possibility of sexual tension.

04:13Where did you find this house?

04:14Was it hard to find the house?

04:16Oh, you know what's funny?

04:17We had another house and the owners were absolutely insane.

04:20And we were like, let's just find a backup in case they're just like, you know, and then

04:24we found this house and we were like, were we crazy trying to do the other house?

04:28house like it was like it was just so perfect but it was my production designer

04:32Kara Brower she's a great eye and she knew what I wanted and start third film

04:38together so it was just like what was everyone's first splurge for themselves

04:43like when you got your first job I have that with Tessa actually cuz Tessa would

04:46always buy dinner all the time and then also my first movie was not a paycheck

04:53movie it was a little was our film made together she knows this no one made one I lost money

04:59because again the producer right here she was like let's go but when I was able to and I can

05:06just be like boop whatever it's fine you know it's true and you told me you did tell me you said one

05:10day yeah because she also is not a cheap date she is really expensive so like we're gonna we're out

05:18here what I'm gonna get the garden salad you know I remember the first time I took you out though

05:24and what you ordered I was like what we

Tessa Thompson & 'Hedda' Cast on Reinventing 'Hedda' from Stage to Screen | TIFF 2025

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