Cate Blanchett as: Marissa Wiegler

Directed by: Joe Wright
Selected Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Olivia Williams, Tom Hollander
Written by:  Seth Lochhead and David Farr
Release Year: 2011
Genre: Action / Adventure / Thriller
MPAA Rating: PG-13

 

 

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Raised by her father in the Finnish wilderness, teenage Hanna has trained all her life to be the perfect assassin. Her father sends her on a mission, and she stealthily makes her way across Europe while evading agents sent after her by a ruthless operative named Marissa, who once worked with Hanna’s father. As she draws closer to her target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and begins to question her humanity.

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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

• On Saoirse Ronan: “I had worked with her father on Veronica Guerin (2003). When I bumped into him at the Oscars ceremony in 2008, it was then that I realised that the little child who used to visit the set was one of the year’s nominees – Saoirse.”
• “Saoirse [Ronan] is an extraordinary actor and an incredible presence, self-possessed and unaffected. She connects with things by drawing on her own experiences. She has a rare spirit!”
• On her character, Marissa Wiegler: “Marissa worked undercover in Germany in the 1990s, and relished the cut-and-thrust of covert operations. The one she was involved with Erik in failed and was closed down, so she harbors incredible resentment towards the agency about the whole thing as well as self-loathing. When Erik and Hanna reappear, she goes back into the field to close them down. Finding Hanna starts out as a professional necessity, but becomes pathological, for her. She wants to possess this child; it’s a bit like the Wicked Witch from the Hansel and Gretel story. The fairy tale elements add a heightened quality to the scenes.” (The Filmstage, February 2011)
• On her action scenes in the film: “I told Jeff [Imana, fight stunt coordinator] that I didn’t want to look like ‘a girl’ holding a gun. He reassured me that women holding a gun often look more natural than men doing so, since the women are not trying to emulate Clint Eastwood or a cowboy.”
• “Joe’s [Wright] introducing a fairy tale aesthetic into the film draws on his own background in puppet theatre. As a director, he creates a safe environment where you can make a few mistakes, and then hopefully you make better decisions. Joe’s attention to detail is such that one minute he would be fixing my hem, the next helping to paint a set, and the next calling for the lens numbers. He is involved in every aspect of filmmaking.”

Quotes from Others

• Joe Wright:
  — On ADR and how well the cast worked with it: “I don’t know. Luckily most of the actors I work with are really good at ADR. Saoirse’s really good at ADR. Cate [Blanchett’s] brilliant. Most of the actors. Keira’s [Knightley] a genius at ADR. Some actors are and some actors are really, really rubbish at it.”
  — On Cate Blanchett: “Because she’s [Cate Blanchett] just about the best actress in the world, really. She’s a very bold actress and a brave actress willing to take risks and not the kind of actress who feels she has to play the nice appealing character as so many of them do.”
  — “Marissa is kind of based on a primary school teacher I had! Her name was Priscilla, and she was sexy and well-kept. She wore thick make-up and stockings that had a sheen and made noise when she walked. At story time, the girls used to sit and stroke her legs as they sat around her. She had this vibe, and she came to mind when I was thinking about Marissa; since Hanna is also a fairy tale, I was conceiving of the characters as archetypes and then layering them with character specifics. So Marissa was a combination of Priscilla, President George W. Bush, and a wicked witch; in my parents’ puppet shows, the witches had red hair and wore green, so I asked [costume designer] Lucie Bates to always have Marissa wearing green, and the red hair suits Cate [Blanchett] very well I think.
  Cate is not a vain actor at all, and was up for wearing too much make-up; I wanted to see the pores through it. The teeth thing – that comes from what I see as the American obsession with teeth, really. From an English person’s point of view, it’s extraordinary how uniform American teeth are. So I thought Marissa would take it almost to the point of harming herself. I spoke about that with Cate. Later, in the middle of one shot she sucked her teeth and made this strange little noise. I watched it thinking, “This is fantastic; Marissa is tasting the blood of this moment.” It gives her a thrill.”
• Saoirse Ronan:
  — On Cate Blanchett: “I love Cate [Blanchett]! She’s like a wicked witch in Hanna and she’s great. She brought her little baby Iggy [Ignatius] on to the set and he was just adorable. She’s really lovely – and she’s professional and focused, and I like to be that way, too.”
  — “My dad worked with Cate [Blanchett] on a film called Veronica Guerin and I don’t remember meeting her but she remembers meeting me as a wee child and it was great to know I was the second generation of my family to work with her. She’s a very grounded person who would sit in hair and make-up in the morning with me and be just a normal woman who is at her job but you can tell she really cares about her work.”
  — On the film: “I want all the roles that I play to hold challenges. With lots of action and a layered character, Hanna had them for me. It’s unlike any other drama that I’ve done. Here is a teenager who has been raised in a forest and has gotten all her education from her father; she’s never even met anyone else before. We meet her as she goes out on her own, and when she does she is fascinated by everyone and everything she comes across. My favorite quality of hers is that she is non-judgmental; she shows an open mind to, and a fascination with, everything. She’s a bit of a freak. But, I like that; I like freaks.
  Hanna discovers life for the first time, so the movie is not just about a girl who kicks butt – though she certainly does!”
• Eric Bana:
  — “Cate’s [Blanchett] interpretation of this villain is great. She is a fantastic actor to have hunting you down!”

Trivia & Facts

• Filmed in Germany, Finland, UK and Morocco.
• Danny Boyle was developing Hanna with screenwriter Seth Lochhead in early 2009, but eventually left the project.
• The script was listed on both the 2006 and 2009 Black List, an annual list of the best unproduced screenplays of the year.
• According to Joe Wright, Saoirse Ronan specifically requested that the studio bring him on-board to direct the film.
• Cate Blanchett spoke to a former CIA agent to prepare for the role.

Sydney Film Festival screening, 8 June 2011