Gwendoline Christie talks about designing her Wednesday character, Nevermore’s principal Larissa Weems, with complete freedom from Tim Burton.

Gwendoline Christie, who plays Nevermore’s headmistress Larissa Weems on Netflix’s Wednesday, designed her character’s look without any input from director Tim Burton.

In an interview for Vogue’s “Life in Looks” video series, Christie broke down her roles such as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones, Captain Phasma in the Star Wars franchise, and Wednesday‘s Larissa Weems. Burton, who directed the first four episodes of Wednesday, apparently told Christie to style her character however she wanted. “Larissa Weems is very special to me, because Tim Burton said to me, ‘Do whatever you want with the character,'” she said. “And that was a gift.”

With the help of Oscar-winning costume designer Coleen Atwood, Christie used Tippi Hedren from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds as a starting point. From there, she adjusted that style until it became her own. “I wanted to subvert this idea of the Hitchcock heroine,” Christie said. “It was a part I would never have been cast as, I would never be cast to look that way. And I wanted this woman to be not a victim, but someone ruthless, someone that’s grown up being in the shadow of Morticia, someone that’s used to being second best, someone that’s used to nothing ever quite being good enough. And I figured she would look to that magic portal, the cinema, in the same way that I had when I was growing up and would want to embody one of those heroines.”

The Addams Family-inspired show sees Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) enroll in Nevermore Academy, the alma mater of her parents, Gomez and Morticia Addams, portrayed respectively by Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Larissa Weems, the current principal and Morticia’s former roommate, also possesses the ability to shapeshift.

Wednesday’s Larissa Weems Subverts the Hitchcock Heroine

Christie has previously compared her Wednesday role to a Hitchcock heroine, describing Larissa as “the first time I’ve ever felt beautiful on screen.” In a November 2022 interview, Christie referred to the role as “an opportunity to create that and to inhabit that sort of impenetrable, imperious character with that classic idea of femininity.”

Since its debut in November 2022, Wednesday has broken viewership records for Netflix as one of the biggest series premieres in the streamer’s history. Wednesday garnered over 5 billion minutes watched in its first week of availability, according to Nielsen, coming in second only to Stranger Things Season 4, which hit over 7 billion minutes in its first week. Netflix officially announced that Wednesday had been renewed for Season 2 in January.

Season 1 of Wednesday is currently available to stream on Netflix.

Source: Vogue