Gwendoline Christie has wanted to be in ‘Star Wars’ since she was six years old.
The 39-year-old actress felt "unbelievable joy" when she was cast as Captain Phasma in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ because she’d dreamed of being a part of the sci-fi universe after being captivated by the late Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia in the original movies when she was a child.
She said: "I can remember the precise moment I was cast as Captain Phasma in ‘Star Wars’. It was an explosion of unbelievable joy.
"For a long time, I had campaigned to be in the franchise to anyone who would listen,
"It was an ambition motivated by one of my earliest memories, of when, aged six, I was placed in front of the flamboyant space opera.
"I marvelled at this fantasy world in a way I couldm’t yet articulate, with its misfits and droids and a woman who fought the enemy with intelligence, who was funny and refused to be shackled – the inimitable Princess Leia.
"I recall thinking even then, ‘She isn’t like all the other women on TV. She won’t be told what to do.’ "
And Gwendoline felt "truly electrified" when she saw her costume for the first time because it hadn’t been made sexy just because of her gender.
She said: "When I was taken to the top-secret wardrobe department to see my Captain Phasma costume – a shiny, full-body suit of armour – I was truly electrified.
"Kathleen Kennedy, president of LucasFilm, had asked me if I’d ever Googled ‘female superheroes’ and proceeded to show me the results; a plethora of scantily clad, cartoon-like women and not a whole lot else.
"The concept of a female character in a huge film like ‘Star Wars’, whose flesh we are denied from the outset, felt fresh and exciting.
"A suit of genderless armour for a female character shouldn’t have felt new, but it did."
Gwendoline Christie achieved childhood ambition
