Now I'm strong: I can run fast, I can lift weights, and that in itself is quite empowering, to have that physical strength. It changes my whole mental attitude.
Esme Creed-Miles
I feel myself in ways to be the product of internalized male gaze.
I definitely struggle with a disillusionment towards my body and my gender.
It's lovely to escape myself and play someone who actually inspires me and gives me strength.
'Hanna' has grown up in mother nature's beautiful wilderness and that's what she knows. So for someone like me who has always had a life in the city, it was a chance to look beyond social conventions.
I never wanted to be an actress. Acting wasn't in my mind. It wasn't in my calculations.
I think growing up, the assimilation of most cultural conventions typically encouraged by a heightened awareness of gender and sex encourages a sort of separation of the self. What's so special about 'Hanna' is that her upbringing has negated this indoctrination; she's almost absolved of the pressures of gender or gender itself.
It was so cool to be listening to, I don't know, some Cocteau Twins song while I was running through the Slovakian wilderness.
'Hanna' has grown up in wilderness. It highlights humanness and animal-ness in humans. She has an interesting take on gender and love.
In terms of actors and roles that I want to do in the future, most of those have been played by men. I mean Robert De Niro is my favorite actor of all time. That's the thing, it's not a woman, it's a guy.
Sometimes punching a bag for half an hour was pretty cathartic and pretty necessary.
Young action heroines feel in service of male gaze, rather than being the full complexity of a human being.
You have your assigned sex but gender is more of a construct and I think one that is incredibly disillusioning and I think when we buy into those constructs then we start to maybe, unbeknownst to ourselves, cause real damage to our psyches.
I don't really embrace femininity.
The whole thing of sexually objectifying yourself is really demoralizing and degrading as a human being, and it's something that men have never had to do, and it's something that 'Hanna' has never had to do.
The way I feel seen by the opposite sex is sometimes really detrimental to me. I'm very aware of how I'm constantly being sexualized and objectified in their eyes which makes me feel worthless.
Even the basics of learning how to throw a good punch is very hard.
It honestly affects my mental health, social media, on a really profound level. Because I'm constantly being bombarded with an image of femininity that I feel I have to adhere to. And I think there's a lot of pressure in this industry, as well, being constantly discriminated on your aesthetic appearance.
As a young woman, my own experience of looking at myself in the mirror is something that's plagued me in lots of ways.
I think the best privilege that I have in terms of having them as my parents was not just the doors that opened, but, I think, the stability to be graceful in the face of rejection, which is something that actors get every single day, and knowing it's not personal and not having that be part of your psyche.
I actually did a lot of yoga because I found it helped with my core strength and flexibility, which are two things you absolutely need when you're doing martial arts.
What was really special about 'Hanna' as a character is her pursuit of agency.
'Hanna' doesn't maintain social norms. She doesn't have those boundaries. She speaks her mind and is very physical and funny.
Obviously, in different circumstances, I definitely related to this idea of feeling claustrophobic and wanting to discover things for yourself. I think that's something that all young people can relate to.
I've never been someone who'd done any sports.
I always found growing up that, even inspiring female characters or complex female characters in TV and film... I often found that their complexity was actually just another facet of their sexuality.
I thought 'Hanna' was an opportunity to explore a character whose femininity was so raw and unconditioned by the modern world.
I just love listening to music and talking about it, so my social media is mostly dedicated to talking about songs and stuff that interests me.
I had a few months of physical prep where I was training six hours a day - I was doing an hour and a bit of yoga, I would do a couple hours of cardio and weight-lifting, and then I would do an hour or maybe two of martial arts training.
I'm very conditioned by my surroundings, by the influences of social media, by the television I watch. And I always found, growing up, that even inspiring female characters or complex female characters in television and film, I often found that their complexity was actually just another facet of their sexuality.
I wish we did, in a way, grow up in the forest and we didn't all just post bikini pictures and work out just to look good.
I had to learn martial arts.
I was never a sporty kid. Then I discovered my physicality and running and endorphins.
In my screen test for 'Hanna,' I sort of pretended I was this sporty person when I really wasn't.
It's really tough, it's a very kind of cutthroat industry and you have to be prepared that you're not going to get the parts that you want.
I believe in assigned sex but not necessarily gender. Gender is a learned construct that is detrimental to both sexes.
I personally feel like the conversation around feminism has advanced a lot. People are starting to realize privileged white feminism isn't cutting it. We have to look at the holistic experience of all women, or assigned women, on the planet.
I don't really leave my house. I'm a very introverted person. I don't like going out. I don't like parties.
Even as a kid I remember seeing 'Minority Report' and just crying my eyes out. It was horrible what was happening to her. That was my mum!
What my parents have given me is what I would call a healthy entitlement.
Everyone else went to drama school, and that teaches you how to dissociate from your character. I don't know any technique! I'm just acting by chance - and by connection.
I was thrown into this world of training, and weightlifting, and boxing, and cardio. It's amazing to feel your body being capable of that.
What is special about 'Hannah' is she's complex. She takes risks and she's smart, and she has a lot of love for people.
The way that I work is I didn't go to drama school or anything like that so I have no choice but to be instinctual because I don't have a tool kit in the same way.
It's frustrating to see that people still get shocked when they see a woman doing action.
The idea of women having a complete hold on their lives is still alien in a lot of places. So, it is important that we keep telling such stories where women are shown both physically and mentally powerful.
Women should not only be doing action on-screen but should be a part of every other aspect of filmmaking.
Fight prep, boxing, cardio, stretching. It's almost like dancing, you have to learn to dance and keep practicing it.
Stunt people are amazing at what they do, but they're not actors.
Even if an actor might not nail the moves in a way than a stunt person might, I wanted to bring the character of 'Hanna' into everything that she did.
