Gwendoline Christie Talks Playing ‘Captain Phasma’ in Star Wars The Force Awakens!!
Many of you may or may not know that one of the main characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, ‘Captain Phasma‘, is actually female. Actress Gwendoline Christie is playing the role, and today we have an interview where she talks a bit about the experience. Check out the interview below, and share your thoughts after the JUMP!
(Source:theforceawakensblog.com)
Gwendoline Christie spoke to Variety Magazine talking about her roles in Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Read on for some minor details on her character Captain Phasma and how J.J. Abrams wanted her to perform the role.
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE TALKS ABOUT CAPTAIN PHASMA“It was very important to J.J. that I was there acting a part,” she noted. “I found it to be a really interesting acting challenge, not just because of what I felt this character was representing — and it was just what I felt, and we talked about it a little bit, but it was never like a manifesto, ‘this is what it must be’ — and it was exciting to me to have that weight of responsibility taken away, of having to be a certain way as a woman, to have to be mindful in a way that isn’t always useful. To have that stripped away was very liberating, and it meant that as an actor I had to focus on other things. I had to focus on what my body was communicating and what exactly my voice is communicating.”
She added, “It becomes about the way in which you hold your hand, the way in which you walk, where your weight lies and what you want that to mean, and I wanted to give the character identity. I thought it was interesting to make something about the character identifiably female in a non-superficial way, and I hope that comes across.”
While outwardly it might be difficult to imagine that a “Star Wars” villain would share similarities with a “Game of Thrones” heroine, Christie admitted that she found one link between her roles. “I don’t think many female actors get the opportunity to play a part where they’re not having to think about the way their face looks, but I found exactly the same thing with Brienne of Tarth, and that was very liberating,” she said. “It was great as an actor to work on your skills — that it isn’t about holding your head so you look beautiful. It’s about what you’re transmitting, and to be in service of an idea greater than yourself, whether it’s the character’s overriding objective or, beyond that, hopefully something more sociopolitical. We have seen an image of [Phasma] and again, it’s an unconventional kind of woman exhibiting a kind of strength, but in a very different way to my other two characters.”
