In The Studio ... ... with NINA HOSS

NIA DACOSTA'S VIVACIOUS NEW ADAPTATION OF “Hedda Gabler,” starring Tessa Thompson as Ibsen’s intriguing society maven, is anything but fusty — and perhaps “Hedda’s” most delicious twist sees Nina Hoss take on a character the Norwegian master originally wrote as a man.

- 

With Eilert Lövborg made Eileen and the action moved to a British country estate in the 1950s, Hoss transforms Hedda’s paramour into an ambitious scholar, liberated woman and scarred lover you can’t take your eyes off of. Hoss recently stopped by The Envelope video podcast to break down the play she says is the female actor's “Hamlet.” The following are excerpts from the conversation, edited for length and clarity.

In the original play, your character Eileen Lövborg is a man, Eilert Lövborg. What did you make of that switch?

To be honest, when I first read it I was like, "Why hasn't anyone ever thought of that before?" Coming from the German theater scene, which is quite adventurous, I would say we don't shy away to take the material and do something new with it. And I was really astonished that no one had thought of that. The main work for me was that I had to forget about that. I just had to look at this character as a totally new thing because [the fact] that she's a