Krysten Ritter’s the last person you’d expect to see headlining a Marvel project, and that’s what makes Jessica Jones so intriguing. Available in its entirety on Netflix on Friday (November 20), the series puts Ritter front and centre in what the Veronica Mars and Breaking Bad co-star describes as a “13-hour character study” rather than a great big superhero grappler.
For those readers who aren’t Marvel completists, who is Jessica Jones?
Jessica Jones is, like, a former superhero. She’s had a lot of trauma and really dark shit happen in her past. When we meet her, she’s rebuilding her life and working as a private investigator in New York City. She’s a loner, very rough around the edges. She drinks a lot. It’s very dark, it’s very gritty, it’s very grounded, and it feels very film noir. It’s kind of a new genre for Marvel.
It’s also a role unlike anything you’ve played before. Were you wary of taking the part?
I never fancied myself playing a superhero, because I don’t look like what you’d expect [from] the images that we’ve seen our whole lives of female superheroes – the tights things and the boots and the big hair. This is the complete opposite of that. It’s kind of crazy, because for me it’s the sort of role you’d only find in a dark independent movie that probably nobody ever would see [laughs]. But this happens to be Marvel and Netflix. So it’s kind of like actor candy.
How would you frame it to people who’ve only seen you in Veronica Mars or Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23?
I’ve had great opportunities to do comedy and be really funny and over the top – and then I’ve had opportunities like Breaking Bad, which used something that’s a little bit more subtle and dark and troubled. I think both of those things, and sort of everything I’ve done, led to getting this part. It’s kind of everything I’ve done all in one, and then some.
There’s an opportunity for me to do everything I’ve always wished to do as an actor. There’s room to breathe. I get to kick people’s asses! I’ve never done action sequences in my career, and this is a great opportunity for that. And then I’m also just walking around looking like a badass! To cool music!
Krysten Ritter on the freedom to play Jessica Jones, and her terror of getting it wrong:
normw@nowtoronto.com | @normwilner
