"Before Cruella de Vil, Alex Forrest and Villanelle, there was Hedda Garbler. As the greatest master manipulator of the 19th century, Henrik Ibsen's Hedda has been the blueprint for every twisted, scheming femme fatale to boil a bunny or steal a puppy since. It's been 135 years since Ibsen wrote Hedda Garbler and yet, unlike many other anti-heroines who have followed in her wake, playwrights, directors, and cultural commentators still haven't had their fill."
"In the play, she is a high-class woman in a loveless marriage with academic George, a man who - to borrow from today's parlance - is a wet lettuce. In search of some fun and perhaps some anti-patriarchy rebellion, she toys with every lover and loved one in her orbit, particularly Eilert Løvberg, her former flame and her husband's work nemesis."
""When you read the play, she's so wild," grins Candyman director Nia DaCosta in agreement. We're in a London hotel room, DaCosta perched next to actress Tessa Thompson, here to talk about their . It's another adaptation of Ibsen's play, but unlike any that has come before it. As Thompson puts it: "At a certain point, after we had done so much research into previous versions, eventually this thing that we were making was its own animal.""
Hedda Garbler emerged in the 19th century as a manipulative, scheming anti-heroine whose behavior established the template for later femme fatales. She remains central to popular culture, with thousands of adaptations and performances by actors across generations. Hedda is portrayed as a high-class woman trapped in a loveless marriage to academic George, whose dullness prompts her to seek excitement and unsettle those around her, especially former lover Eilert Løvberg. Critics debate whether she is simply despicable or a complex figure crushed by domestic expectations. Filmmakers like Nia DaCosta and actors like Tessa Thompson continue to reinterpret Hedda in new cinematic contexts.
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