She made her name with a horror reboot and a mega-budget Marvel. So what drew Nia DaCosta to the dour Norwegian’s work? We meet the film-maker and Tessa Thompson, who plays Hedda as a sexy, sultry, machiavellian mess
N
ia DaCosta and Tessa Thompson are reminiscing about the first time they met, at Sundance film labs where DaCosta was workshopping her debut feature, Little Woods. “Honestly, Tessa had a great vibe,” says DaCosta. “She was super open, super generous and very intelligent.” A smile creeps on to her face. “Like – that was a fucking relief.”
Thompson gives a look of mock offence. “I really just like working with smart actors,” adds DaCosta, filling the silence. “Why did you assume that we’re dumdums?” asks Thompson, turning to look directly at her director, as they sit in a Soho hotel in London. “I didn’t,” she is told. “I was just like, ‘What a pleasant surprise.’ Who would have thought it? Not me.”
This is a typical exchange from a director and actor partnership that’s now on its third film, and seemingly built on a healthy amount of negging and mickey-taking. The first outing was 2018’s Little Woods, which starred Thompson as a bar-brawling drug mule who contemplates “just one more job” – crossing the border from North Dakota into Canada to acquire opioids. Shot on a shoestring budget, it was a stylish and bracing calling card that set the director, now 35, on a meteoric rise.
