As the saying goes, get yourself a friend that looks at you the way Nia DaCosta and Tessa Thompson look at each other.
The duo have now collaborated on “Hedda,” an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1891 play “Hedda Gabler,” written and directed by DaCosta and starring Thompson. The film is in theaters now and launches on Prime Video on Oct. 29.
Having known each other now for some 10 years, when asked to describe their relationship, DaCosta declares Thompson to be “basically my best friend.”
“It’s just a real gift to be able to collaborate with someone that you trust completely,” says DaCosta, her mouth widening into a smile as she adds, “and that you can be a fool in front of.”
“Hedda” had its world premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival. The next day DaCosta, 35, and Thompson, 42, are sitting in a pair of side-by-side armchairs in a hotel suite amid lights and cameras while on a break from a series of television interviews.
The two first met as part of the 2015 Sundance labs, where DaCosta was developing the project that would become her debut feature, 2018’s crime drama “Little Woods.” It was while at the labs that DaCosta asked Thompson to star in the film — “She said when I make this movie, not if I make this movie,” recalls Thompson — and the two have been friends and professional sounding boards for each other ever since.
In “Hedda,” Thompson plays Hedda Tesman, formerly Gabler, recently married to George (Tom Bateman), an academic struggling to secure a new position. Having borrowed money to buy and renovate a grand home, George and Hedda throw a big party in hopes of impressing his prospective new employers. They did not count on the arrival of Eileen Lövborg (Nina Hoss), a former flame of Hedda’s, a formidable academic in her own right and now a rival for George’s prospective new job. As the party rages on and grows increasingly decadent, Hedda sets out to manipulate Eileen and Thea (Imogen Poots), Eileen’s assistant and current lover, into wrecking their chances against George. Hedda is the life of the party but also its complicated, needy heart and soul.
DaCosta has made a number of key changes to Ibsen’s text, most notably flipping the gender of Eileen, who in the original play is a man named Eilert. Through her adaptation and casting, also by moving the setting to 1950s England, DaCosta injects issues of gender, race and sexual identity into the story, turbocharging its thematic power.
Thompson’s performance is a remarkable blend of intelligence, glamour, unpredictability and danger. Out of Toronto, Times critic Amy Nicholson celebrated the film as “a devilish and dynamic adaptation,” remarking on DaCosta’s changes to Ibsen’s play by saying, “The spirit is faithful; the subtext is fresh.”
Hedda Gabler is among the most iconic roles for women on stage, often thought of as the female Hamlet, and the part has been played by such performers as Jane Fonda, Cate Blanchett, Annette Bening, Glenda Jackson, Ingrid Bergman, Fiona Shaw and “Hedda” cast member Hoss. Thompson says she never felt particularly drawn to play the role onstage, actually preferring the part of Nora in Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House.”
“I think, thankfully, I didn’t have the emotional connection of: I must play Hedda one day,” says Thompson. “But I was deeply familiar with the play. And then through the process of preparing, probably much to Nia’s chagrin, I saw every production I could get my hands on.”
Since first meeting, DaCosta and Thompson have been on what they both describe as “parallel paths,” navigating Hollywood as women of color. Thompson appeared in three “Creed” pictures, also playing the role of Valkyrie in numerous Marvel movies including “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame.” Additionally she made time for independent features such as “Sorry to Bother You” and “Passing,” as well as appearances on the popular HBO sci-fi series “Westworld.”
In describing what it has been like to see her friend rise in stardom, DaCosta playfully says, “And here’s Tessa Thompson, capital T, capital T.”
DaCosta has charted her own unusual path through the industry. Following “Little Woods” she went on to direct a remake of the horror film “Candyman” that made her the first Black woman to direct a film that opened at No. 1 at the U.S. box office. She followed that with “The Marvels” as the youngest director of a Marvel movie. Meanwhile, DaCosta has already shot “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” a sequel to “28 Years Later” set to open early next year.
Thompson said that even if she didn’t know the filmmaker personally, she would still look to DaCosta as someone to watch.
“It’s really extraordinary to get to feel like I’m charting that path with her,” Thompson adds. “And also that she gets to take me into spaces that frankly, in some cases, I don’t think I would’ve been in otherwise.”
In “Little Woods,” DaCosta cast her in a naturalistic drama similar to Jennifer Lawrence’s early breakout role in “Winter’s Bone,” but also one that most likely wouldn’t otherwise be offered to her. That same feeling continues with DaCosta now casting Thompson in one of the definitive roles for female performers, but one that isn’t often filled by a woman of color.
“Something that really struck me is there are so many incredible actresses that have gotten to take the helm of ‘Hedda Gabler,’ but not many of them look like me,” says Thompson. “So I also just feel really grateful that I found both a friend and a collaborator that wants to take somebody like me along for the ride, because it’s intrinsic to the kind of storytelling she wants to make.”
As to her own wide-ranging trajectory, DaCosta says it represents the breadth of films she wants to make.
“I wanted to be able to do whatever kind of movie I wanted to do,” says DaCosta. “I wanted to be able to make small personal films. I wanted to make a mid-budget drama. I wanted to make big Christopher Nolan-type sci-fi films. I think for me, I felt with ‘Candyman’ and with the Marvel film, it was: How do I get to that place where I can tell original stories with these budgets and with trust and in these spaces?”
In preparing for “Hedda,” Thompson purposefully did not revisit the original play until after she had read DaCosta’s adaptation, wanting that to become her primary text. It was then that she went back and read the play in different translations and watched numerous other productions. Her research only made her appreciate the boldness and insight of DaCosta’s adaptation more.
“In the original piece, the source material, there is this real apprehension and fear of scandal,” says Thompson. “And so if we were going to project a Hedda that was bohemian and could dazzle at a party and could sleep with women and could have a ferocious sexual appetite, well, this is a woman that’s not afraid of scandal in the same way. And so I realized that what we were doing really was not a one-for-one and that we weren’t just changing around the furniture. I think sometimes that’s what happens in an adaptation. You’re just moving the furniture around a little. No, we’re doing a demo — we’re doing like a gut renovation.”
“We’re flipping the house,” interjects DaCosta.
In working on her script, DaCosta came to realize she wanted to narrow in on three women, Hedda, Thea and the gender-flipped character of Lövborg.
“It’s in the 1950s and my Hedda is a Black mixed-race woman — what does that mean?” says DaCosta. “I’m making Lövborg into a woman. OK, now what? And also I just tend to favor really nuanced, complex stories because when I’m walking through the world, people are endlessly fascinating. I love when you see someone’s mask but you also see behind the mask. And do they know that you can see both at the same time?
“For me, that was the great opportunity of ‘Hedda.’ This is a woman with masks on masks on masks. But by the end of it, she’s just heart out, blood dripping everywhere, and she’s pulling everyone else into that space as well. So it is complex, but I think it’s good to be less afraid of how sexuality, race and gender affect stories.”
Suddenly the space between Thompson and DaCosta seems to crackle with an interplay of creative energy, as if the sharing of ideas generates its own palpable discharge.
“If you’re going to adapt any great, storied work, you really have to have skin in the game,” says Thompson. “And I think what Nia did is really daring. A lot of the stuff that she cut I used to think of as architecture. I think our piece invites a bit more ambiguity, which is daring in and of itself.
“But also part of what Nia is wrestling with is how do we find agency, particularly as women, when we’re hemmed in by societal expectations, but we also hem in ourselves,” continues Thompson. “What I found really fascinating with the reversal of having Lövborg be a woman is also that you could write yourself into the picture in moments.”
“Yeah, I’m most Lövborg,” agrees DaCosta. “For sure, absolutely.”
The film draws to a climax that is different from the original play, drawing on Thompson’s unique abilities to hold the camera’s gaze with her own. It is one of many moments that feel like a showcase for Thompson’s spellbinding screen presence, DaCosta seeming to capture something secret and special about her friend.
“I’ve read something recently that if you think you’re a people-pleaser, how many people are actually pleased with you right now?” says Thompson. “Probably the truth, if you’re really being really honest, you’re not always going to please everyone because it’s impossible. Obviously our Hedda is somebody that’s a very extreme example of that. Nia says she acts on her intrusive thoughts. But fundamentally there’s something inside of her that I think is actually really aspirational, which is: I’m going to exist and live exactly the way that I really want to, moment to moment. The great tragedy of her is ultimately she’s not brave enough to really do that, to really live the life that she wants to live.”
Comparing their own work together to the ongoing collaborations between Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan or Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, DaCosta and Thompson do not think it will be years and years before they work together again. Thompson has plans to produce something for DaCosta, a TV adaptation of a book, but is still in the process of finalizing the rights and is reluctant to jinx it by saying the title.
For DaCosta, the ongoing collaboration with Thompson just takes one piece of uncertainty off the table while facing the many challenges of making a movie.
“I have someone, she’s great,” DaCosta says, relieved. “She’s my person in many ways, but it’s great to be like, ‘Oh, I’m writing this story. OK, let’s hope Tessa does it.’ I know she’s busy but it gives me a North Star.”
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