Nia DaCosta has reimagined one of the most iconic theatrical characters for the screen with Hedda, which included a key change to one major character. Written and directed by the Candyman filmmaker, the Prime Video title marks the latest adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play, in which the eponymous newlywed finds herself manipulating and pushing against social constraints across one party.
Led by Tessa Thompson, her first full reunion with DaCosta after starring in her feature debut Little Woods, Imogen Poots and Tom Bateman, Hedda has garnered widespread acclaim from critics since its Toronto International Film Festival premiere. DaCosta’s new take on the material, in particular, has been singled out for discussion in many reviews, with one of the biggest tweaks being changing Hedda’s former love, Eilert Lövborg, from a man into a woman, played by Jack Ryan alum Nina Hoss.
In honor of the movie’s release, ScreenRant interviewed Nia DaCosta, Tessa Thompson, Tom Bateman and Nina Hoss to discuss Hedda. The latter stars, in particular, were asked about the movie changing Lövborg into Eileen, which Hoss expressed her excitement at being offered the opportunity to play as it meant “exploring the material in a completely new way“ from what even longtime fans of the play expect:
Nina Hoss: I think the audiences will [see the change as a luxury] as well, because having this woman put in there in the midst of it all challenges everyone around her in a different way and, in particular, of course, Hedda. So that was the main thing where I thought that was the biggest change for me.
For Bateman, however, he found that this gender change added a new layer to the dynamic between George and Lövborg, as the two are professional rivals as much as romantic ones for the titular character. The Based on a True Story alum began by opining that his character is “100%” afraid of Hedda, which he points to being “born out of not understanding this woman that he’s married to“:
Tom Bateman: He thinks he does, but she just won’t conform to this role that he wants her to play. And so that comes with frustration, a bit of anger and resentment. But yeah, a hundred percent fear. And I think he’s not idiotic. He does understand that this woman is doing something that he doesn’t understand and that puts him in a very strange position.
Turning back to Eileen and George, Bateman found that the gender change helped further play into the character’s insecurity in his marriage, as Lövborg being a man in the play meant he was “challenged by this man [and George] could never come up with the genius” of his rival’s writing, whereas the character being a woman “deepens” the tension between them:
Tom Bateman: To have it be a woman that’s done this thing, that him as a man who he sees women as beneath him, it challenges him on a whole new level. Everything he thinks about the entire world is being challenged throughout this piece.
Tessa Thompson & Nia DaCosta Have Their Reasons For Why Hedda Still Captivates Audiences Over A Century Later
ScreenRant: Tessa, to start with you. Nia, you wrote in the notes that this is the most unknowable and complex woman in theater. Yet Tessa, I feel like you understood Hedda so well. How did you come to the realization of knowing who this character is?
Tessa Thompson: It’s typecasting. [Laughs] I’m like, finally, a documentary about my life. Kidding.
Nia DaCosta: That’d be so funny. I was like, “Oh, this is Tessa. Play yourself.”
Tessa Thompson: Listen, I think one of the reasons that Hedda Gabler has compelled and captivated audiences for centuries is that I do think that all of us have some murky, unsavory things buried inside of us as humans. And I think the time in which we live, the ways in which we’re socialized, the things that we’re told that we can and cannot do, the things that we can and cannot hope for or choose, I think give us parameters.
And while I don’t agree with everything that she does, I think fundamentally where it comes from, which is to try to live a life that is your own and try to find a real sense of purpose. I think that that, fundamentally, is a really human thing. So I kind of started there. I think that we all have a tiny bit of Hedda inside of us, if we’re really honest. Not like burning people’s life work or pointing people towards suicide. None of those things. I just mean that I think we have little shadow selves inside of us.
ScreenRant: Nia, I know you made some narrative changes, but I want to talk about the unique elements you did visually, because I feel like the story is always known for being on the stage, and your shot selection specifically was a masterclass. I love the way you incorporate mirrors into the camera at times. Can you talk to me about the visual language of this film?
Nia DaCosta: Yeah, for sure. Thank you for asking that. No, genuinely. I love talking about this stuff. Yeah, I mean, my DP and I, Sean Bobbitt, this is our second film together, we just did a third, and part of the reason why I love working with him is because we have a similar sort of desire with each film to do something different and also to really filter every choice through character and through emotion and through the arc of the story. So we have a joke on set where we are like, we don’t use the word coverage. It’s like specific, carefully selected shots. And for me, I wanted everything to include character, I wanted to give information to the audience, so the framing, the lens choices, the way we lit every single scene, every moment was very specific to where we were in the story.
So, for example, I’ll talk about lenses because I know we don’t have a ton of time, but we use two sets of lenses. One was the Hawk C Series, which are vintage lenses, but they’re pretty good. They’re pretty stable, but they have a bit of a character to them. And then we had a second set called the Crystal Expresses, which are really funky, these rebuilt anamorphic lenses. And we knew that we wanted the look to decay over the course of the party, and we knew that we wanted to really reflect Hedda’s complexity through the image.
And so as the party goes on, we incorporate more of the Crystal Express lenses. And then we had one of those, I think it was the 50 close focus that we just used on Tessa as Hedda. And so every choice we made visually was super specific to where we were in the story, where the characters are going, where they just came from. And that was really, really fun to do.
Hedda is now streaming on Prime Video.
- Release Date
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October 22, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Nia DaCosta
- Writers
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Nia DaCosta, Henrik Ibsen
- Producers
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Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tessa Thompson, Gabrielle Nadig