Tessa Thompson’s Bold Reinvention: Inside Her Transformative Role in ‘Hedda’

Tessa Thompson’s presence on screen has always been electric, but in 2025, she took on a challenge that would redefine her career and, for many, reframe a literary classic. In the Nia DaCosta-directed adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s ‘Hedda Gabler,’ simply titled ‘Hedda,’ Thompson steps into a role that is as iconic as it is daunting. But this is no ordinary retelling. The film bursts with fresh perspective, exploring themes of power, identity, and longing through the lens of a Black, bisexual woman navigating the restrictive social mores of 1950s England.

Thompson’s Hedda is a woman of contradictions. She commands attention, gliding through her wedding night party with the poise of someone born to lead, yet her eyes betray an undercurrent of pain and isolation. She is, in many ways, both the architect and prisoner of her own fate—a dynamic DaCosta’s film explores with nuance and empathy. The film’s setting, a lavish but precarious cocktail party, underscores the era’s culture of pretense: pearls and champagne masking financial anxiety and emotional repression. It’s here, amid the dance and deception, that Hedda’s true struggles simmer beneath the surface.

What makes this adaptation particularly resonant is the bold reimagining of key relationships. Eilert Lövborg, traditionally Hedda’s male rival and lost love, is now Dr. Eileen Lovborg, played by Nina Hoss. This change does more than update the gender dynamic; it creates a same-sex romantic tension that elevates the material, allowing the film to probe more deeply into themes of forbidden desire and the societal forces that force people to hide their true selves. As Hedda locks eyes with Eileen across the crowded room, the world seems to fall away—a moment captured with cinematic flair that both Thompson and Hoss described as a dream come true during a recent press conference (Out In Jersey).

Thompson herself acknowledges the complexity of the character she inhabits. “Hedda is a person who walks into a room and demands a type of power. But the actual source of it lacks power entirely. She feels utterly powerless,” Thompson explained. This powerlessness, paradoxically, becomes the engine driving Hedda’s need to control others, to shape her world even as it closes in around her. For Thompson, the chance to express this through the film’s visual language—especially in scenes where the camera seems to dance along with the characters—was a professional dream realized.

Director Nia DaCosta’s vision was clear: to reframe Ibsen’s tragic heroine as a figure whose struggles are existential as much as social. While the original play focused on a woman suffocated by expectations of marriage and motherhood, DaCosta’s ‘Hedda’ asks broader questions: How much are we trapped by society’s limiting beliefs? How do we repress our own power and personhood in the face of those constraints? Thompson, who also served as a producer on the film, said this existential layer resonated with her personally and informed her portrayal of Hedda as someone perpetually balancing on the edge between longing and belonging.

In a powerful exchange during the film’s press Q&A, Nina Hoss reflected on the chemistry she shared with Thompson. “To have this moment captured like this. To know that it’s the beginning of something else. The energy shifts; it was such a gift from the filmmakers and craftmakers. It’s the magic of cinema when it all comes together.” That magic is palpable in ‘Hedda,’ particularly in scenes where lust, longing, and resignation swirl together—rendering Hedda’s internal world as vivid as the party surrounding her.

Yet, the film never loses sight of the harsh realities facing queer people in the 1950s. Hedda’s marriage is both a shelter and a cage; her desires are buried beneath layers of expectation, her agency steadily eroded as the night unfolds. DaCosta was careful, as she put it, “not to lean into the ‘kill your gays’ tropes,” instead choosing to explore the full humanity of her characters—complex, strong women who refuse to be reduced to stereotypes.

Outside the world of ‘Hedda,’ 2025 proved to be a momentous year for cinema, even as the industry weathered the storms of corporate upheaval, AI disruption, and shifting audience habits (inkl). Thompson’s performance, and the film itself, stood out as a beacon of innovation and emotional truth—a reminder that the art of storytelling is as much about asking questions as it is about providing answers.

While Thompson’s red-carpet appearances and fashion choices—such as her sculptural Diotima dress at the Critics Choice Association’s Celebration of Black Cinema & Television—have drawn headlines (Harper’s Bazaar), it’s her work in ‘Hedda’ that cements her place as one of the most daring actors of her generation. She brings vulnerability, command, and a searching quality to the role, inviting viewers to see themselves in Hedda’s struggles and triumphs.

As ‘Hedda’ draws to its close, the sense of hope is bittersweet. The character’s quest for agency and self-expression is both timeless and tragically current. In an era when so many still feel trapped by the limitations of their time or by the weight of history, Thompson’s Hedda is a figure who, even in defeat, provokes us to examine our own boundaries—and perhaps, to imagine how we might transcend them.

Assessment: Tessa Thompson’s portrayal of Hedda is more than a performance—it’s an act of cultural translation, breathing urgent life into a classic tale. By embodying a character at the crossroads of power, longing, and identity, Thompson and DaCosta invite us to confront how much of ourselves is shaped—and sometimes stifled—by the worlds we inherit. The result is a film that is as much about today as it is about the past, and a career-defining moment for its star.