Tessa Thompson was inspired by other takes on Hedda Gabler

Tessa Thompson took inspiration from other portrayals of Hedda Gabler.

The 42-year-old star plays the title character in the new film Hedda – which is based on Henrik Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler – and watched plenty of other takes on the role in preparation for the movie.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Tessa said: "I loved seeing what Cate Blanchett did, or Fiona Shaw. Regrettably, there wasn't a recording of (her co-star) Nina Hoss playing Hedda in Berlin. But it was a gift."

However, the Creed star limited herself to watching other portrayals of the character only once.

Thompson explained: "Eventually we thought, 'You know what, we're doing something completely different.' At that point, we just left the play alone. This script became the bible, and that really set us free."

Hedda is set during the 1950s and Tessa immersed herself in the time period via her character's reading material.

She said: "I was very curious what women were told about themselves during that time. I felt like Hedda would be someone who would have devoured etiquette books."

Hedda spends much of the film wearing a green party dress and Thompson revealed that the clothing was used as a contributing device to the story.

The Thor: Love and Thunder star said: "We loved the idea of Hedda taking up a lot of space with the sheer circumference of this dress. To that end, we also loved the idea of her sort of diminishing and deflating over the course of the film.

"So we had all these underpinnings that we would take out, depending on where we were in the evening, and chart this emotional landscape."

Meanwhile, Tessa previously revealed that she was keen to move into directing at some point after her co-star Michael B. Jordan took the reins behind the camera on the 2023 flick Creed III.

Quizzed if she has plans to direct, Tessa told IndieWire: "Yeah, absolutely. I have something in mind."

She had high praise for Jordan's directorial efforts on Creed III and was impressed how he balanced the challenge with starring as the titular boxer Adonis Creed.

Thompson said: "Even though he was taxed and stressed, and I know it because I know him so well and I could tell the days where things were tough for him, never would he take it out on anybody around him.

"He would take a breath and figure it out and go back in there and treat everyone with respect and ask people how their weekend was and be just a lovely, lovely leader.

"That, to me, is the mark of someone that can really do this because should be, at its best, a team sport, and that person is just the captain, but everyone is important on the team."