STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Captain Phasma Actor Talks About the Acting Nuances of Her Role



If you don't watch Game of Thrones, then you don't know who actor Gwendoline Christie is. At least you won't know her until you see her in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS on December 18 as the chrome stormtrooper Captain Phasma.

In an interview with Variety, Christie has finally spoke about her role as Phasma but not about her role in the movie's plot. She talked about how she went about portraying a strong female in a leadership role of the movie's antagonist group, the First Order.

"I found it to be a really interesting acting challenge, not just because of what I felt this character was representing — and it was just what I felt, and we talked about it a little bit, but it was never like a manifesto, ‘this is what it must be’ — and it was exciting to me to have that weight of responsibility taken away, of having to be a certain way as a woman, to have to be mindful in a way that isn’t always useful. To have that stripped away was very liberating, and it meant that as an actor I had to focus on other things. I had to focus on what my body was communicating and what exactly my voice is communicating. 
"It becomes about the way in which you hold your hand, the way in which you walk, where your weight lies and what you want that to mean, and I wanted to give the character identity. I thought it was interesting to make something about the character identifiably female in a non-superficial way, and I hope that comes across. 
“I don’t think many female actors get the opportunity to play a part where they’re not having to think about the way their face looks, but I found exactly the same thing with Brienne of Tarth, and that was very liberating. It was great as an actor to work on your skills — that it isn’t about holding your head so you look beautiful. It’s about what you’re transmitting, and to be in service of an idea greater than yourself, whether it’s the character’s overriding objective or, beyond that, hopefully something more sociopolitical. We have seen an image of [Phasma] and again, it’s an unconventional kind of woman exhibiting a kind of strength, but in a very different way to my other two characters.”

Based on action figure availability (technically the lack of availability), Captain Phasma is already trending to be a hugely popular character since it's nearly impossible to find her figures on any store shelves right now since the toys launched on Force Friday, on September 4.