The role Tessa Thompson cherishes the most: “That was a very fun one”
It’s quite interesting to watch the development of actors sometimes; while some are leads right out of the gate, others take some time to settle into their craft, playing supporting roles until they get their day in the sun, at which point they either grasp it or they don’t. Los Angeles born Tessa Thompson has definitely done the former, as this year’s Hedda showed all too well.
Much as ‘it’s an adaptation of a Henrik Ibsen book’ will send shivers down the spine of anyone who did A-level English, Thompson received huge acclaim for her performance in the Nia DaCosta directed drama, earning a Golden Globe nomination and underlining her ability to lead a film.
It marks an upward curve for Thompson over the last ten years or so since she broke through opposite Michael B Jordan in the Rocky spin-off smash Creed in 2015 which helped earn her a major role on HBO’s sci-fi hit Westworld a year later. Running for thirty episodes over a six year stretch, Thompson played not just high-powered ‘Charlotte Hale’ in the show but also a replica of the character for two seasons.
The success of Westworld led Thomposon to be cast in her first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Thor: Ragnarok which was a big hit with audiences and critics alike, before the following year saw her take a part in a film that she says was her favourite to date, the science fiction black comedy Sorry to Bother You.
It tells the tale of a young black man who affects a ‘white person’ voice in order to succeed at his telesales job in a dystopian future, and Thompson loved the experience of filming under director Boots Riley, describing the movie as “bonkers” and saying that Riley gave her carte blanche with her character of Detroit and “just gave me such a tremendous amount of freedom in terms of sculpting her and how she looked. That was a very fun one.”
Despite a relatively small budget, Sorry to Bother You was a word-of-mouth and then a commercial hit, bringing in almost $20m at the box office against a budget of just $3.2m. Thompson, meanwhile, was starting to pick up several major roles; in 2018, she starred with Natalie Portman in the fantastic Alex Garland horror Annihilation as well as reprising her roles in sequels to both Creed and Thor.
In 2021, she collected Emmy and Critics’ Choice nominations for her performance in the romantic drama Sylvie’s Love before she took the lead role in British actor Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut Passing the same year, and was nominated by BAFTA for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’.
She then teamed up with Nia DaCosta for the first time in the MCU’s The Marvels in 2023 playing her character of Valkyrie. While the film itself suffered from mixed reviews and struggled to earn back a colossal $200m budget, the performances in the film, Thompson included, were widely praised, and the movie still stands as the highest-grossing in history to be directed by a black woman.
Thompson is now about to be seen in a high-profile Netflix show called His & Hers alongside The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal which lands on the streaming site in early January 2026. Thompson plays a journalist investigating a murder in her hometown who clashes with Bernthal’s detective.
