‘It is the first time I’ve ever felt beautiful on screen’: Gwendoline Christie

Los Angeles: Gwendoline Christie has spoken about how Wednesday made her feel ‘beautiful’ for the first time on-screen as she was given ‘freedom’ to create her own character.

The actress, who has starred in big name projects including The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones, said it was the first time in her career she felt seen.

Gwendoline’s role in the Netflix series is as Nevermore Academy’s principal, Larissa Weems, who director Tim Burton gave her creative freedom to invent. She said: ‘It is the first time I’ve ever felt beautiful on screen. I cannot express my extreme gratitude more heartily to Tim and Colleen and our hair and makeup team.’  During a recent interview, Gwendoline said: ‘she said, ‘You can do whatever you like with the character, feel free to make it whatever you want and we’ll keep talking about it’.  ‘What kept coming to me was this idea of this Hitchcock-style heroin, this screen siren, that maybe that young woman would look to our mystic portal, the cinema, to be an incarnation of her fantasies.

‘And weirdly, Tim had exactly the same idea and so did [costume designer] Colleen Atwood.’

Gwendoline revealed how she was inspired to create the classic idea of femininity, but with a twist, which she said was the opposite of herself.  She said that Hitchcock heroines are often plagued by trauma but have a strong sense of ambition and are willing to risk high stakes situations.

The Brienne of Tarth actress, said: ‘It is the first time I’ve ever felt beautiful on screen,’ she added. ‘I cannot express my extreme gratitude more heartily to Tim and Colleen and our hair and makeup team.