A different kind of wonder woman
Marvel’s Jessica Jones is a superhero suffering from post-traumatic stress, who has put her mask, but not her past behind her, writes Michael Idato.
There is a tale told in the annals of the superhero casting history books that Christopher Reeve won the role of Superman not with bold, overstated moments of Kryptonian super-strength, but with the simple act of removing his glasses.In that moment, as his stance altered, the shift between Clark Kent and his alter-ego was so tangible that the role was unchallengeably his.
Though the names, dates and details change, that story serves as a powerful window into the essence of casting.When Marvel’s Jessica Jones executive producer Melissa Rosenberg sat down to cast her lead characters, heroine Jessica, the super-strong Luke Cage, Jessica’s best friend Patsy Walker, the villainous Kilgrave, Jessica’s neighbour Malcolm and NYPD cop Will Simpson, she was looking for exactly those sort of subtle claims of ownership."We had, in our auditions, our sides [that is, single-scene scripts] for the actors,’’ Rosenberg says."There were just a couple of very dry lines, just a couple, in a hugely dramatic scene, and they were just kind of buried in there. As they say, drama is easy, comedy is hard ... and it was interesting to watch all of the dramatic actors who came in, [and] those lines just died.’’
That is, until 33-year-old Krysten Ritter – CV highlights Breaking Bad, Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl and Veronica Mars – walked in the door.
‘‘She got it,’’ explains Rosenberg. ‘‘It was that balance between profound emotional drama and finding the different levels, finding just a second of levity, but keeping it grounded, not stopping for the laugh. She just throws it away, her range is impressive.
‘‘Not just Ritter, but Mike Colter as super-strong Luke Cage, Rachael Taylor as Jessica’s best friend Patsy Walker, David Tennant as the villainous Kilgrave, Eka Darville as Jessica’s neighbour Malcolm and Wil Traval as NYPD cop Will Simpson.’’
Marvel’s Jessica Jones is based, obviously, on the Marvel comic books character of the same name. She is a former superhero who is suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder and, in an attempt to change her life, gives up the more traditional world of superheroism to open a detective agency.
That element of the story – that Jessica Jones is dealing with the post-traumatic stress connected to her superhero life – is in some respects the most groundbreaking.
‘‘She does whatever she can to not feel those things ... [but] she is forced to deal with them,’’ Rosenberg says.
‘‘To me, what’s interesting is, how does she avoid them? And how long does she? And what bad decisions will she make in an effort to not feel them, and then ultimately, when she does allow herself to experience them, forgive herself?
‘‘That for me is the series-long arc – can she forgive herself, can she allow that she is not inherently bad because of it?’’
In narrative terms, the series of 13 one-hour episodes is set, as with all of the other Marvel television programmes, such as Agents of Shield and Daredevil, within a central continuity known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It is also one of a series of Netflix titles which are more directly connected.
But that mosaic is large and complex, linking projects as varied as the two Agents series on the US network ABC (Shield and Carter) with the Netflix titles (Daredevil, Jessica Jones and more), as well as the theatrical film releases (Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and others).
As the showrunner of a single piece of the larger landscape, Rosenberg is not daunted.
‘‘My job and the writer’s job is to make it utterly and completely to itself,’’ she says. ......................................................................
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