Hedda: Star Tessa Thompson, Filmmaker Nia DaCosta On Reimagining Ibsen's Play As Queer

The

latest retelling of Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler is bold and audacious. Nia DaCosta takes some big swings in the Amazon Prime Video adaptation starring Tessa Thompson in the lead role. The filmmaker and the star, who have been friends for a decade, discussed how adding a queer narrative in the 2025 film Hedda changes the dynamics of the feature film altogether.

Tessa Thompson, Nia DaCosta on adding a queer love triangle to Hedda

In a press conference, DaCosta revealed that she found the main character of Hedda both enigmatic and horrifying. She stated, "[Hedda is] also very vulnerable, really funny and sexy and loathsome and lovable. She's like this very complex creature, and the play is this really interesting construction. I just really wanted to follow all the things that really got under my skin about the play. And so my changing Eilert Lovborg to Eileen Lovborg was one of the first things I thought of. I really wanted to have another woman in the play. I really wanted it to be about more than just Hedda. I wanted it to be about three women who are trying to figure out what the hell they're doing and how they can feel good and whole within themselves. And Hedda is someone who's so unsatisfied for reasons she doesn't understand. She wants a sense of freedom that she thinks she can't get without a man."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lgD59KrTw

She continued, "When you change Eilert to Eileen, you add this element of queerness to the story as well. And although some people read the original play as Hedda being queer, which I find interesting, I didn't necessarily. But it was a side effect in my movie that everyone was queer once I changed Eilert to a woman."ALSO READ: Hedda Star Tessa Thompson Felt Challenged By 'Smart and Daring' Adaptation From Friend, Filmmaker Nia DaCostaThe filmmaker also shared that Hedda's race is also important in the adaptation. DaCosta added, "That really opened up, I think, a vision, Hedda, that some, maybe not all people, could empathise more with. I really wanted her to feel isolated in the world and not just in terms of her gender but also her race."Star Thompson also commented on the gender swap and the addition of queer themes in the story. Speaking about Nina Hoss's character Eileen Lovborg, the actress explained the big change in the story. The actress welcomed the changes as a modern woman. Thompson said, "It makes the piece queer in a way that the original piece isn't. But I think more than that, I think fundamentally something that it does is give Hedda a real foil. Another woman who's in the world who's making very different choices. And I think this is a piece that wants to explore our piece more than Ibsen's."Hedda also stars Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock, and Nina Hoss. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on October 29.