Gwendoline Christie has appeared in several big title movies but admitted that her latest role was the first time she felt “beautiful on-screen.”
Christie was born on October 28, 1978, in the city of Worthing, England.
You’d think as a child, Christie would’ve been into acting…
But due to a spinal cord injury, she left the sport and tried something new.
Her career in acting came at the age of fifteen.
Christie took on a prominent role in the school production of Lady Macbeth.
Since then, she realized she wanted to connect her life with the stage.
When she told her parents about her decision, she received unexpected support.
However, acting wasn’t the primary reason how Christie got famous.
Before acting, she broke her way into the modeling business.
In 2002, a photographer named Polly Borland noticed a pretty tall Christie.
At the time she noticed her, she was working on a new project and invited Christie to participate in a trial photo session.
The majority of her photo’s involved nudity, but the actress didn’t mind as it helped her accept her body and femininity.
Christie put her education and career first. She studied at the performing arts at Drama Centre in London.
She ended up graduating in 2005.
During her studies, her acting mentor was actor and film director Simon Callow.
According to Christie, her time at the university wasn’t so great.
Christie often said in an interview with media representatives that teachers every day told the entire batch of students that they were nothing and would not achieve anything.
After a few years, the actress realized that they did it for their benefit.
But at the time, it was extremely difficult for her to combine the hours-long activities that lasted until the evening with this pressure.
After graduating, she landed a few movie roles.
The first role she landed was just 2 years after graduating.
She featured in a little-known fantasy drama titled The Time Surgeon, which was released in 2007.
In 2011, she landed another role in the movie Wizards vs. Aliens, in which she played the role of Lexi, Princess of Nekron.
Though the series didn’t end up becoming popular…
She started to attract quite a little attention from fans.
But by the time she landed the role in Game of Thrones, that’s when the actress gained real popularity.
Christie played Brienne of Tarth in the HBO fantasy-drama series.
Her character was a strong warrior who dreams of knighthood.
Christie said that after reading the book, she was delighted with playing Brienne, as she experienced bullying for being tall and masculine firsthand.
Not only that, but even George RR Martin, who was on set, saw Christie wearing the Brienne costume, and everyone on the set realized that there was no need to look for someone else for the role.
Since her appearance in Game of Thrones, Christie has made numerous appearances in films and TV shows.
The latest being the Netflix series Wednesday, where she plays Larissa Weems.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, she spoke about how the role made her feel “beautiful.”
Tim Burton, director of the series, gave Christie the freedom to create the character Larissa Weems as well as giving her characteristics.
“He 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,'” Christie said.
“What kept coming to me was this idea of this Hitchcock-style heroine, this screen siren, that maybe that young woman would look to our mystic portal, the cinema, to be an incarnation of her fantasies.”
She continued: “And weirdly, Tim had exactly the same idea, and so did costume designer Colleen Atwood.”
When creating the character, she looked at actors such as Tippi Hedren and Kim Novak for inspiration.
Christie said she likes to transform herself into a character that’s the complete opposite of herself.
She also found this opportunity to embody the “classic idea of femininity” with a small twist.
“Hitchcock heroines tend to have all sorts of trauma being exacted upon them, for this to be a woman who was in charge of her own fate, who was ruthlessly ambitious and who was willingly putting herself into dangerous and extreme situations, was exciting to me,” 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.”
Wednesday is available to watch on Netflix.
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