“It’s hard to have agency as a human, and then you add any of the particulars of a given time, and it gets even harder. And there’s a way in which, when we cut parts of ourselves off, it’s like death by increments… I think this Hedda is a woman who’s dying to live,” said Hedda star Tessa Thompson during a Q&A at the film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Directed by Nia DaCosta, Hedda is an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler. It’s taken some liberties, by moving the time period from the 1890s to the 1950s, and by gender switching the role of Eilert in the play to Eileen. Those liberties are crucial to raising the stakes in the film, and helping reinforce that what Hedda wants to live for may be just out of reach.
This dilemma influences all the characters in the film, including Eileen, a former paramour of Hedda, played by Nina Hoss, as well as Hedda’s husband George, played by Tom Batemen.
“What I thought was so amazing about what Nia did bringing it into the 1950s is it’s such a tense time of conflict and clashes between genders and race and class… What’s amazing, what Ibsen did, and what Nia did even more with this, is to challenge all these characters,” said Batemen.
Added Hoss: “I just was so surprised by the fact that Nia had this idea that either (gender) could work…I read it, and I thought, oh my God, this is so interesting, because it means so much. The stakes are so much harder for a woman to enter this academic world, to be a writer, to know this is the only thing I can do, and I’m good at it, and there’s just this barrier that I can’t push through. And she goes for it.”
But perhaps the biggest challenge in the film is an existential one: Do we really have control over anyone, including ourselves?
Nicholas Pinnock, who plays Judge Roland, doesn’t think so, especially when it comes to the indomitable Hedda.
“His biggest challenge is to try and control her and try and play with her, but he cannot win. You know, he wants to be able to control everything around him, and he does as much as he can through George in the background, but he just cannot get a grasp of this woman,” Pinnock told the Toronto audience.
How did all these deep considerations affect Thompson’s interpretation of Hedda?
“I felt set free by the fact that I think we were making something very different. It was inspired by the source material, but this was its own animal. There’s a reason why Hedda Gabler has captivated audiences for so long,” Thompson said.
Hedda had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival and will be in theaters on October 22 before streaming on Prime Video on October 29.
Main image: Tessa Thompson in Hedda. Prime Video.