How Freya and Anya brought ‘The Witcher’s’ Princess Ciri and Yennefer to life
Freya Allan
One of the challenges of adapting an already well-known media franchise into a movie or television show is coming up with a product that will cater to the general public, but at the same time satisfy the most devoted and exacting of fans who know the source material inside out.
Many of them will already have conjured mental images of how the characters should look like. Many of them will already have expectations about which plotlines should be pursued and how they should be executed.
“The Witcher” is one of those. Based on novels and short stories by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, the fantasy series—which follows the exploits of the wandering monster slayer Geralt of Rivia in the tumultuous Continent—became a cult favorite in Poland and central Europe after its release in the 1990s.
The title subsequently spawned comic books and inspired card and tabletop games. But what really catapulted “The Witcher” to worldwide fame were the video games, which are considered to be some of the best and most revolutionary in the action-RPG (role-playing game) genre.
Anya Charlotra
And so, the fan base’s eyes were all on the streaming service Netflix, when it announced in 2017 that it was producing a series based on the books.
British actresses Freya Allan and Anya Charlotra—who play Princess Ciri and Yennefer of Vengeberg, respectively—are well aware of how crucial their characters are to the story. That’s why it’s imperative, they pointed out, that they embody their roles and turn in truthful portrayals.
“The best way for us to look at it is that we have worked really hard to portray these characters as best as we could. And that’s all we can do. Same goes for the whole crew and cast … We just hope that people enjoy it,” said Freya, when asked by the Inquirer in a call conference, if they were ready for the feedback of book readers and gamers, who can be quite tough to please.
Anya—whose casting initially elicited mixed reactions from fans who felt she looked too young for her role—chooses to focus on the positive.
“With the pressure of playing such an iconic character, it would be so easy for me to read [the comments] because I care about the fans. That’s why we do what we do,” she pointed out. “But there’s so much positivity out there and I really focused on that; and on the work at hand—bringing the characters alive in the most truthful way.”
As the sole princess of Cintra—one of the most powerful states in the Continent during the reign of her grandmother, Queen Calanthe—Ciri had a sheltered upbringing. But one night, she lost everything and found herself thrown into the brutal outside world, after their kingdom fell into the hands of Nilfgaard during its conquest to become the greatest empire in the known world.
Allan as Princess Ciri
“She has seen the most horrific things and experienced the most overwhelming amount of loss. She’s going through the pain … but she soldiers on. And that takes a huge amount of determination, drive and real strength,” Freya said, adding that much of her character’s mettle springs from her vulnerability.
“You get to see that through her open-mindedness and how kind, gentle she is. She’s able to understand other people’s viewpoints and see the goodness in people, despite the fact that they have totally opposing views,” the 18-year-old actress said.
Born with physical deformities, Yennefer harnessed the emotional turmoil simmering inside her while she trained to become a powerful sorceress in the Academy of Aretuza. Though she’s perceived as manipulative and ruthless, these are, in fact, mere defense mechanisms to shield herself from rejection, which she knows about all too well.
“Looking at her backstory and the tragic childhood she had, we learn about her insecurities and fears, which feed the chaos inside her. And this actually becomes a source of her power. It becomes her strength,” Anya said. “Her resilience comes from the suppression, confusion and the abusive upbringing she had. These helped her become one of the most powerful mages in the Continent.”
“She also doesn’t take no for an answer and is very unapologetic,” the 24-year-old actress added.
For Anya, her and Freya’s characters greatly benefit from having a female showrunner and screenwriter—Lauren Schmidt Hissrich (“Daredevil” and “The Umbrella Academy”—fleshing them out.
Charlotra as Yennefer
“All the women have such strong attributes, and I think they have been developed by this incredible team. I mean, one of the reasons I wanted to do this project was because I was excited about what she’s going to do … and how she had been developing story lines for us that are independent from Geralt’s,” she related.
“I thank all the female voices within the writing room for the way these characters are portrayed,” Anya said. “It’s such a gift to have them working on this show.”
Meanwhile, asked what it’s like working with Henry Cavill, Freya and Anya said it was inspiring to have someone so passionate about the project.
“He’s such a fan of ‘The Witcher.’ That’s so clear—how excited he is about it all. And it’s so nice to be around someone who’s so excited, despite having been in this industry for so long. And he worked so hard,” said Freya, who also looks up to Henry as a mentor of sorts.
“We had some great conversations where he talked me through things I was worried about … He started acting when he was about 17, so he knows how it must be for me now,” she related. “And it’s great to have someone to speak to about things I don’t know about.”
Anya, on the other hand, found Henry “humble” and “approachable” from the first time they met.
“He was so enthusiastic about working on ‘The Witcher’ and bringing Geralt to life. It was an absolute joy to work with him. And we often work closely together, so we had some really great times on the set,” she related.
(The eight-episode first season of the “The Witcher” is now available for streaming on Netflix.)
