Cursed is a blessing for Katherine Langford
Netflix’s Cursed is, by accounts, a blessing for Australian actress Katherine Langford. It’s not just because the 24-year-old is cast in the lead of a “much-anticipated” series but also because it’s a show that celebrates a strong, female character.
Cursed, which is adapted from the New York Times bestselling book by Tom Wheeler and Frank Miller with the same title, reimagines the Arthurian fable and its fabled characters King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, among others — a tale the world has known of through various versions in literature, art, film, games and television.
In Cursed, the tale takes a radical turn as it is told as a coming-of-age story through the eyes of Nimue (played by Langford), a village outcast struggling with a mysterious gift which, unbeknownst to her, will lead her to her destiny of becoming the powerful yet tragic Lady of the Lake. As fans of English folklore would know, in the original myth, she is the one who gifts Arthur the legendary sword of Excalibur, but has been depicted either as heroine or villain.
For Langford, the “important and really powerful thing” of doing a fantasy series is how to make it relevant with real life despite it being otherworldly. “For me, Nimue especially, when you first see her, she’s this outcast, she’s quite isolated from everyone else, and she’s restless and she doesn’t know who she is, she doesn’t feel like she belongs. And throughout the course of the series you really see her come up and face these obstacles in which she has to harness this incredible courage,” Langford told The STAR and a few others from the Philippines and Singapore during a recent Zoom interview. “ And so, I think, in many ways, many people can resonate with that, whether you’re young or whatever age you are, we’re all at different points in our lives restless and we’re all in different points in our lives searching for our purpose in who we are and trying to fit it.”
For Cursed creators, Langford was the ideal actor for the origin story. “She’s a wonderful, professional collaborator and leader. I’m very proud of her performance. We knew it was a daunting role, not just emotionally but physically, with a lot of stunts,” said Wheeler, who also serves as an executive producer on the Netflix series.
Langford’s previous works include the 2019 critically-acclaimed whodunit film Knives Out and the Netflix teen-oriented thriller series 13 Reasons Why where she was a main character in the first two seasons. During the virtual roundtable, she revealed the reason she took on Cursed and the “special preparation” she did for the latest project to date.
On why she was particularly attracted to the role of Nimue:
“This role, I think, came around at a really interesting time. I was really looking for something that felt special and different to anything that I’ve done before and I wasn’t necessarily looking to do TV but then this manuscript was sent through to me, and it was written by Tom Wheeler and Frank Miller and based on a book that they also released. When I read it, I just knew that it was something that I wanted to be a part of.
“You know, growing up, I love fantasy. I loved action and especially as a woman, those roles where they’re placing a female at the center of those genres is far and few between, so it’s something that I’m really proud to be part of.”
On any special preparation for her character and the series:
“I really wanted to invest in Nimue and sort of developing this girl to become heroine because I feel like it’s important to honor the journey that is specific to a woman on her path to becoming the sort of hero and icon. You always wish we had more time when it comes to training and things like that.
“But I think, at the beginning of the project, I was lucky to have a couple of weeks where we basically just intensely trained and learned horse-riding, which I’ve done a tiny bit when I was a kid but didn’t really properly know how to do it. So, I was horse-riding, sword-fighting and dialect-training after wanting to come up with her dialect because I didn’t want it to sound contemporary…. trying to come up with something that was specific to her alongside costume and make-up.
“I really enjoyed that aspect of it and it’s something that I feel I gained a lot more respect to see people train for eight months for Marvel films. You understand why because it takes time to learn new skills and maintain them. I love that! I love throwing myself around and getting into that. So it was a great challenge.”
On what young Filipino women can learn from the series:
“Gosh, I feel like there’s so much that you can say and, you know, everyone has their own personal journey. And having been part of the projects that I’ve been part of so far, I’m definitely very proud to have projects that also resonate on levels other than entertainment, whether that’s mental health or equality or LGBTQ+ rights. But definitely playing Nimue, it felt like her whole journey revolves a lot around coming into her own and coming into herself as a young woman. And in order to do that she has to embrace all the parts of her that other people don’t understand and that she’s been put down for.
“So, I guess one of the biggest messages in this and that I have learned, even myself is that you have to embrace all of you, and have the courage to be yourself because when you are yourself you are at your strongest.”
- Latest
- Trending
