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EUR Convo with Tessa Thompson As Female Lead in New Sci-Fi Action Drama ‘Annihilation’

tessa thompson
Tessa Thompson

*We all loved her in “For Colored Girls,” “Selma,” “Dear White People,” “Creed,” the list goes on and on. Now,  Tessa Thompson is giving fans an even deeper, intimate look at her fine acting chops as she stars as one of the female leads  in the new movie “Annihilation” also starring Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tuva Novotny and Oscar Isaac.

Based on a groundbreaking science fiction novel, “Annihilation” touches the surface on universal themes while presenting an entertaining, otherworldly story. It also allows viewers to gather their own interpretation of the film’s overall message. Being apart of an ensemble that features five strong female roles, EURweb’s Maurita Salkey caught up with Thompson as she talks about the preparation for this film and what can fans expect.

  1. Congratulations on all your success thus far especially being a female lead in Annihilation.  You also recently just wrapped up production on director Boots Riley ‘Sorry To Bother You.” Tell me a little bit about your journey and what is was like to work with such a veteran actress like Natalie Portman.

 I think opportunities throughout the course of my career is like breaking new ground. I even look back at some of the things I did early on in my career like working on Veronica Mars and I think wow, I was doing that back then as my first job.  I feel like there have been milestones throughout my career that feel really incredible to me in a way. It doesn’t feel like anything new luckily. In this case, working on Annihilation,  I long admired Natalie’s work, she is such a gifted actor. It was really an honor to work with her. Especially to work on an ensemble that was lead by such fantastic women, women that is different. Even with the success of female narrative films such as Wonder Woman last year, we still find ourselves in recent years with a lack of all-female ensembles. In 2015 there was one,but it was all white women. 2016 there was none. The fact that we have this ensemble of such gifted actors, we have women of color represented is great. That just happened because of filmmaker Alex Garland and Paramount Pictures deciding we just want people that we love for these roles. This moment feels really special to me.

  1. Was there a difference in the environment working with mostly all women?

We really had fun, we would go out on group dinners and we would hang out on the weekends, it was a real safety and ease around that because we were in a company of all women. I think for so many of us, it’s been so rare, Natalie has been working forever and she talked about how this never happens. It was tremendous for us and a lot of silly fun.

  1. When you first saw the script or was first being considered for this role, what were some of the qualities that you saw in the film that made you give it the green light?

So many things, I love Alex Garland and I always wanted to work with him so when I first saw the script I was so nervous to meet him because I already heard so much about the movie and wanted to do it. I think also to play a character like Josie Radek in the film, it’s so different from other characters I have played. I also thought it was so neat to see women of color be kind of the brains of operation in this film, to get to see her be this scientist, it’s so different from the way we are usually portrayed so I think for sure it was an unique opportunity.

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  1. Josie, your character in the film, she’s a little shy, a little bit timid, afraid, but not afraid to speak her mind. She’s kind of the intellectual person out the group. Were there any similar qualities you shared with your character and if so how did that help with preparing for the role?

I guess I have some experience because that was something I had to overcome even in the entertainment business because I was sort of an introverted person like Josie, but some of the requirements in this business is putting yourself out there so that was something I really contented with really early on in my career. I remember when I first started doing plays when I was a little girl, I had really bad stage fright, I remember my knees would buckle, and I would be convinced that the audience would see it. It was only because I loved being on the stage so much that I had to find ways to overcome that. I really understand Josie from that perspective and also thinking about trying to get into the mind of a scientist. I was at Sundance recently and there were two NASA scientists on the panel and I remember Octavia Spencer let the scientists finish talking  and then got on the mic and said “I don’t know what they just said, I have no idea what they just said ” and the whole audience started to burst out in laughter because no one in the audience except for the two scientists understood what they were saying. I think there is this shared language when you understand certain things in science that sort of makes you look at the world around you in a different way. That can make you feel more connected to the world and can also make you feel more separate from the world when you don’t have the same understanding. For Josie, who plays a physicist, when she looks up at the stars, her experience is so wildly different than when I look up at the stars because of what she understands about them and the lifespan of the star, it means something different to her. I also imagined her as a child, as being obsessed from an early age with understanding the world, you cannot take it at face value you want to know about everything around you. In some ways, it makes her seems separate but it’s also her superpower. In the course of the movie, it’s not that she’s not comfortable with speaking her mind, it’s that she wants to make sure her mind is made up. I wish there were more people like that in the world. I wish I was like that, (laughs) I’m always like let me get off twitter and make up my mind before I tweet something, it’s such an admirable quality.

  1. After filming, do you feel like there were parts of you that still mirrored Josie?

I always look at character work as first starting with self. You’re either expanding things about yourself or diminishing things about yourself. With Josie, I felt like I was diminishing the people skills I cultivated, or if I’m playing Valkyrie, I’m expanding the part of myself that does not care what people think. It always starts with me and making things either bigger or smaller depending on the demands of the character. It’s also hard sometimes after you finish a project, it’s hard to shake off that character. I really loved at the end of the film, Josie was like I’m going to do me. There is something so powerful about taking your own lane and your own space so that’s something I think I took away from her. I also realized you don’t always have to assert your own ideas, just listen more.  You tend to learn so much more by just listening.

  1. This film contains some violence, bloody images, and a few action-packed scenes. What was the mental preparation you went through to prepare for this role?

Those days were really terrifying, the crew was smart, there was no hierarchy, we were all in this together, Alex  likes it be more integrated, on those days where it was really dark and scary, you can just feel the whole crew gove their energy to that. Everyone was in that space. It was so lovely and helpful for what we had to do.  It was just make believe but sometimes it was hard.

  1. Ultimately this film’s overall universal theme is about self-destruction. How do you feel like your character contributed to solidifying the theme of self-destruction?

Josie is someone who self-inflicts pain, there’s a number of reasons why folks do that, you know listening to them and their stories. Josie doesn’t feel totally alive so that’s sort of palpable desire to inflict pain so she can feel alive. Life is hard and tricky and so we all in different ways can sort of deal with life’s hard and tricky ways in things that are sometimes not always the healthiest. Drinking too much, having toxic relationships or sometimes ignoring some of all the murky stuff. The most self-destructive thing is not to self reflect. To not be in space of asking yourself the questions why you do things you do and checking in yourself and asking yourself “Are you okay?”

  1. What do you want people to get out of this film?

I love films that don’t present an answer or a streamlined message. I like films that I can’t figure out what the film is saying but it struck me. There’s a fun action part of this film, in addition to those esoteric questions, the film asks which makes it so exciting. There’s a fun part of it, a thrilling part, that I am so excited for people to be apart of.

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