Filmmaker Nia DaCosta is already taking home trophies during award season thanks to her latest cinematic endeavor, Hedda. The reimagined tale of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler is hitting a home run with audiences and critics in a short time. Tessa Thompson stars in the lead role in a story set in an English estate in the ‘50s. Hedda throws a wild party to confront her past and explore her future with melodrama tucked away in every corner.
Nina Hoss is the perfect scene partner for Thompson, played by Eileen Lovborg and Imogen Poots completes the trio as Thea Clifton.
DaCosta was awarded the Black Perspectives Artistic Achievement Award for Hedda at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival and the film was nominated for a Gold Q-Hugo Award.
Thompson will be presented with the Actress Award at the upcoming Critics Choice Celebration of Cinema and Television on December 9.
Nia has quickly carved out a career that’s growing bigger every day. She wrote and directed the 2021 version of the horror movie Candyman and followed that up with the big-budget flick The Marvels in 2023.
She sat for a chat about Hedda and much more while visiting Chicago recently.
JN: You met Tessa Thompson previously?
ND: Yes, we met 10 years ago at the Sundance Directors Lab in 2015. She came to Utah to be in my movie Little Woods.
JN: Did you think about modernizing Hedda more?
ND: I knew it wasn’t going to be contemporary. I chose the ‘50s because I wanted it to be a repressed time period and I chose England because I wanted it to be a repressed place. I think that lent itself to the struggles that the women were facing.
There has always been a hint about lesbians in the original text of Hedda Gabler. Did you draw from that perspective?
ND: That is a reading that people talk about within the text. People have asked me if she has borderline personality disorder or if she is a lesbian frustrated with the whole situation. I wasn’t thinking about that at all when everyone became queer. That was because I wanted Eileen to be a woman. I felt like the struggles would make more sense as a woman and the result of that was a queer love triangle.
JN: It resonated with me when Eileen goes into the room of toxic men, almost topless; to me, it is the same as going into a locker room wearing a jockstrap.
ND: I’m glad that it resonated across gender because that was part of the point. That feeling of her being so exposed and going into a room full of men, then turning it all around to survive, was important.
JN: Nina Hoss is such a powerful actress. I was blown away by her as Eileen.
ND: She is incredible.
JN: How do I get a copy of the lesbian sex book mentioned in your movie?
ND: [laughs] That is funny. My friend mentioned that when she turned 25, she noticed that all of her friends were bisexual. I looked around and I felt like I missed the boat somehow!
I am from New York City and all of my friends are queer, so is Tessa Thompson, although I don’t think she labels herself. My friend watched the film and didn’t know how I made such a gay movie. It has been described as the movie most like me.
JN: It was like an episode of Bravo’s Real Housewives.
ND: Yes, throwing wine everywhere and getting into fights.
JN: I loved the drama.
ND: That was what was so fun. When you watch the play Hedda Gabler is so dramatic and funny. One of the lines is, “For once in my life, I want the power to control a human destiny.” That is melodrama, baby! I wanted to match that tone.
JN: Sometimes people have to be in the mood to watch a period piece, but Hedda is an easy watch. I am putting it on my queer top 10 of the year.
ND: Thank you.
JN: Let’s talk music. I heard Yma Sumac and Björk cover songs by the live band.
ND: That’s actually Betty Hutton and from the ‘50s.
JN: I didn’t know that.
ND: That is why when I wrote the script in 2018, I thought we could do a 1950s version of a modern song, then Bridgerton came out, so that ended that idea. I scrolled through songs from 1949-1956. I found “It’s Oh So Quiet” and thought it was amazing. This was a good way to connect now to then because most people will think it’s the Björk song.
JN: What is your next project?
ND: I have a film coming out in January called 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. I am excited about it and that’s the next thing on my plate.
Hedda and that film were two of the best experiences that I have ever had.
JN: Is there a film you want to make but haven’t yet?
ND: I would like to make a musical.
JN: What is your favorite musical?
ND: Cabaret. The original is amazing, including the old songs from when it first came out. Bob Fosse made a genius film and then Sam Mendes brought it back. It’s a musical that is always given new life, so I love it.
Head over to Amazon Prime Video to stream Hedda today.