The Witcher Season 2 Interview: Anya Chalotra on Her Journey Playing Yennefer
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- čas přidán 10. 05. 2024
- No, Yennefer didn’t have peak confidence all throughout Season 1 of The Witcher, but Anya Chalotra seemed to be oozing with it while playing the character. However, while on an episode of Collider Ladies Night in celebration of the launch of Season 2 of the hit Netflix series, Chalotra admitted that wasn’t really the case. In fact, there was a point during the filming of Season 1 when she had to call a mentor for help.
For about half of the season, Yennefer is a young woman struggling with a curved spine and facial paralysis who’s often ridiculed. When it’s discovered that Yennefer has magical abilities, she’s taken to Aretuza to study to become a mage. After much struggle, Yennefer not only ascends but also insists that the Aretuza enchanter change her physical differences. He does and she’s reborn, stepping back out into the world buzzing with power and confidence.
Prior to The Witcher, Chalotra’s screen credits were limited to the drama series Wanderlust and the BBC One mystery mini series The ABC Murders. The Witcher was on another level. During our Ladies Night chat, Chalotra highlighted one key piece of advice she received when making the leap to such a substantial production.
Hear all about that, what it was like filming Yen's most pivotal scenes of the new season and so much more on this episode of Collider Ladies Night!
Listen to the conversation uncut here: cms.megaphone.fm/channel/coll...
00:00 Dicey Questions
01:37 Witcher Cast Superlatives
03:42 Early Inspirations & Drama School
05:21 Auditioning for The Witcher
06:40 Asking for Help During Season 1
08:30 The Reality of Making an Epic Netflix Show
09:25 Working with MyAnna Buring
10:19 Acting Lessons Learned from The Witcher
11:14 The Witcher Season 2 Spoilers
#TheWitcher #AnyaChalotra #Yennefer
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![Geralt & Yennefer - Their Full Story [Henry Cavill]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qNgIXsqVBE8/mqdefault.jpg)
Funny that Anya isn't 100% happy with her hunchback girl performance when in fact it is the piglet that won me over right away with powerful performance.
I think it was the combination of sadness in Yennefer's eyes and voice with to the point non-melodramatic lines spoken in british accent and a sprinkle of Anya's magic that did it for me.
Beautiful and very likeable young lady, Anya Chalotra is.
So true. I was almost going to comment exactly the same thing but thought you wrote it better. So I will just back you instead.
Definitely! It's what caught my eye and I still think it was her best performance as Yennefer.
When Anya was cast as Yennefer, I had my doubts. She didn't seem to me to have sufficient physicality and presence for the role. But then I watched season one, and her acting completely blew through my skepticism. She's terrific!
TOTALLY TEAM YEN!!!!!!!!!
It was the hunchback that turned me... she made herself a piglet.
It doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous and looks great naked either!
“she didn’t seem to have sufficient physicality and presence” and you’d seen her in how many things before the witcher? shut up
What a fantastic interview. Really refreshing to hear someone actually ask question about her craft, and it sounded like she appreciated it as well. She's extraordinarily talented and has amazing chemistry with both Henry and Freya. When Anya is sharing scenes with either of them it's magic, the real kind.
Also, Anya saying that she did not think she was the right person for a character that's gorgeous, one that women want to be and men want to be with, reminds me of something Lauren Hissrich said way back when they were doing press for season 1: Anya is so beautiful, but it's as if she doesn't know it.
Yen is the only reason I watch the show and keep watching the show. I'd say her character is one of the most intriguing ones of all series I've seen lately, especially in season 1. Her character blew me away. And to finally see an interview that explores the actress herself is very satisfying. We get to know more about her and her process in acting. I love this interview. Very well thought.
Listen Anyannefer makes The Witcher tick period, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show right!
This was the most perfect interview with Anya I've ever seen. Thank you Thank you Thank you! She's so lovely, so amazing and phenomenal as Yennefer I can't get enough! She and Henry truly bring the best version of Geralt and Yennefer and I can't wait to see more of her!
One of the best interviews I’ve seen period! That it’s with one of my favourite actresses just nails it
I love Henry, but Anya's Yennefer was the #1 reason why I kept watching season 1. her acting was and still is so powerful and of course she's also gorgeous.
just finished season 2, and even rewatched both seasons afterwards, twice. and I want season 3 like right now, cos my Yennefer is so fucked up this season. we need her back, Lauren! give our Yennefer back!
I agree . I love Yen. She’s the main reason for me to watch the Witcher
Couldn't agree more, She Is the reason i watch and she Is amazing...i love her so much with Geralt i hope we see more of them and hopefully a slightly better ending..
Really enjoy her as Yen. She sells that internal pain, sadness and resentment, but at the same time always feeling strong and determined. I expect bigger and bigger things for her going forward. Great actor
Anya was so perfectly cast as Yennefer. She has this almost Catwoman like nature to her like you know that she is looking out for herself but that she does have a good heart.
That tracks very well with the novels and games!
Anya is one of the most interesting people on the earth. So genuine! I really can’t get over how talented she is. Her performance in both seasons was outstanding and always leaving me with goosebumps! If I had a choice to meet any person ever, it would be her over and over! ✨
“Women want her, men want to be her” jajaja yes we do 😌💜
Does this women not see that she IS the "men want her, women want to be her" type. She is not someone id describe as drop dead gorgeous, but i cant get over the fact how freaking attractive she is..
She is drop dead gorgeous. Such a amazing actress. I love her.
Can't get enough of her. She's my son's age and I love her being successful and mature. I feel maternal towards her😊 She channels Yennefer so well and although she's very young and fans wanted Eva Green, Anya is just fantastic. I'm glad the interview was done just for her and about her, it's annoying when Freya is on interviews with Anya, because she constantly interrupting and need attention. 🙂 My blessings to her 💚💛
7:34 100% agreement that her work was flawless in S1. absolutely blew me away. great interview! wish there were more interviews like these.
I can't imagine a better actress than Anya Chalotra in the role of Yennefer real applause 👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏👏👏🌹🌹🌹🌹❤
Listen Anyannefer makes The Witcher tick period, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show right!
After deanerys from game of thrones...
Yennefer of vengerburgh is the most badass character that I've witnessed so far😍😍.. I love her acting...
Listen Ayannefer makes The Witcher tick period, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show!
Very good interview and questions... I really liked Anya as Yen, even though I could never have imagined Yen like her in my head after the books and games.
She was my favourite character and arc throughout the season and sold it. To hear her questioning herself was very telling. She cares, and that is all I can ask as a fan of this world. She had the writers and direction to deliver, and delivered. Well done to everyone involved.
Fantastic interview, thank you so much Perri!
Anya is such a delightful person, can hear her talk for ages
Such a lovely interview of Anya, I loved all those questions and Anya's answers were always very interesting !
God, she's just stunning!!!
She’s so adorable ☺️
I like how Anya and Freya basically have the same relationship as Yen and Ciri in real life
I wish more interviewers will be like this.
9:40 S01E02 is my favorite from the series definitely because of MyAnna and Anya's performance. MyAnna's acting as Tissaia blows me away every time!
I love Anya Chalotra, she is the most beautiful actress of today
I think Actress Anya Chalotra as Yennfer is my favorite character on the show. I think she's gorgeous and beautiful ⚘️😍 bring on Season 3 🗡
What an amazing interview! Thank you so much!
Listen Anyannefer makes The Witcher tick period, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show!
Brilliant interview - questions and answers. Love Anya so so much, she is so magnetic on screen
I didn't do any research when I started watching this show and watched the first several episodes back to back. When Yennefer finally emerges from her transformation it was a great scene as I had not seen Anya's beauty beforehand it felt very authentic!
Same, I had no idea how HARD it would hit too!
Thank you for this interview. Been looking Anya’s long interview 😍 Will check also the podcast.
Such a good interview. Loved the questions! I have to say, I am really glad to see a good interview with her on her own. I feel like Anya disappears into the background of the group interviews I have seen. It was great seeing one where she got to shine.
Phenomenal interview, probably the best one I've seen. The questions were so thoughtful and interesting and you were engaged in the answers as well. Not the usual questions and I was interested in her early inspirations and school. I also liked the fun questions at the beginning. I wanted to know about her creativity and talent on a deeper level and this answered my questions. I feel Anya appreciated the questions as well. She inspires me alot on and off screen. Also love the 80s music! Thank you and great job!
I agree with that, questions were fun, witty and well-thought
Her presence is the absolute highlight of this show. Incandescent and the best casting choice. And what a lovely woman. I haven't had a crush on an actress like this in a long time!
Fantastic interview with a lot of insight into the character and the actress Anya
Another great interview by Perri.
Incredible interview !!😍😍❤️❤️❤️ goood job!
Compare Anya with and without Freya Allen around her 🤔 Her face and body language is so much relaxed here. Way to go Anya. Anya Taylor-Joy and now Anya Chalotra. Your charisma and unique style of acting will surely take you places.
Freya is a bit annoying bcs she wants all the attention so Anya feels more relax by herself
thank you for interesting interview!
Great job with the interview! :)
More Anya please!!! Thanks 😊
She is so beautiful
This girl is amazing! I just loved her performance 👑 can’t wait for season 3
Wow she is beautiful ❤
Anya is so dreamy
Anya's voice & accent are so enchanting. It has a sort of musical quality!
great interview and great questions. :) The interviewer prepared really well!
Anya seems like a fun person to be around. She’s amazing as Yennefer and comes across as a genuinely nice person off screen, much like Henry Cavill does.
very good interview
excellent interview
She was worried about being attractive but I think their hardest thing to do was attempt to make her unattractive, she is absolutely beautiful and she has such a great personality and intelligence
Love her Yennifer/ Anya Chalotra
Listen Ayannefer makes The Witcher tick period, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show!
Anya is a great actress. She's the most surprising in Season 1.
Beautiful ladies.
So nice the season 1 and darama story i like it but the receptions i think is more nice season 2 they make the film so good all cast they look so awesome even anya she so look real like yinnefer in season 2 ..congratulation witcher we hop more nice excelent job on season 3
Best witcher interview 🙌
A WAW AWESOME
Greeeat questions by the interviewer!
I hope there will be a third season.
collider.com/the-witcher-season-3-status-scripts-written-showrunner-comments/
@@ColliderLadiesNight "Hissrich also reminds fans they should be patient and that Season 3 still has a long way to go before premiering at Netflix." 😢 What if Henry Cavill is the new Bond? Then we'll never see him as Geralt again.
Oh my! the Grand Moff! I forgot about all my dreams of marrying you when Collider imploded. But I guess it didn’t?? How could I forget! Anyhow so good to see you again and great job as always.
stunning
One of my favorita actriz
What she say about Yennefer when she lost the magic (she is so use to use magic as a tool to get what she want that she kind of does not use her brain as much as she could)..
I feel the same about extra beautiful people, because of their beauty, they don`t need to use their brain so much. (its both sad and funny)
Fortunately there is no rules without exception. :)
I love what you said, quoting Anya. I needed to read this, as a not so pretty woman myself I have struggled with it since a child and have found myself working on my inner self because what I lack in looks I have to make up with wisdom, intelllect and charm. Is a gift and a curse at same time bcs sometimes I hate how I look but also I love who I've become.
@@missmimi6817 You look attractive to me but I get what you mean. I am no hunk and tried to make up for it by working out and getting ripped for many years, as I thought women liked a good body. What a fool I was! as women that have morals and character go for personality most of the time when looking at partners, and so do men.
I am in love 😻
Same and it hurts real bad
I prefer interviews of her by herself, what a woman!
5:58 it's really sad she doesn't see how gorgeous she is. I think it's partly because of all the hate she got from fans when she was cast.
I love Anya ❤
These are cute questions!
Polish myth has a lot of monsters you’d love Perri 😅
For those Americans watching, finding out she's from Wolverhampton is like finding out she's from louisiana, her accent shouldn't be like this 😂. She sounds proper posh and ladylike.
Lol. Good to know!! Thanks!
She's such a lady
She is classy, composed and yet likable, and it feels nice to listen to her speaking. And she has such beautiful dark hair! It's remarkable that she looks much like Yennefer naturally, without makeup and costume. I was not convinced to her playing Yennefer at the beginning (some people still claim that she is too sweet for the role, as Yennefer in the books had this bitch-vibes attitude all the time), but now I kind of understand the choice - Yennefer from the books was just like her, that is: she was perceived as beautiful but was nothing of a flashy magazine cover beauty, her attractiveness in the books was based on unique characteristic qualities in a way. She is like that IMO. She does not look flawlessly beautiful on pictures, but when she acts, speaks, the impression is huge. Anyway, If I were a straight male, I imagine I could easily fall for her. ;) But does she have chemistry with Geralt? That is the question.
By the way, you should interview MyAnna Buring!!! I'd DIE to see that!
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo beautifull Anya!!
You are the most beautifull woman i have ever seen!! WOW
yennefer of vengerberg.
Yen would never swear that much - what did they (NG) do to her... 🤦🏻♀️
She's talented and attractive ...love her as yennifer!🤩But she always seems to be in dull oversized jackets and suits making her appear older than she is! Wish she would instead wear bright colourful dresses or something similar for interviews...she's young!!! Hope she improves at this ...🤞
do americans not know what a hot-water bottle is ?
Is it me or do they always seem aloof and disinterested in the Witcher lore?
I've seen dozens of interviews but they always seem bored talking about it.
Konsay excellent mai angrzi bol rhii hai ye
Im sorry but Yennifer wasn’t Jennifer this season. She was something and someone else. And I am disappointed.
Yeniffer, even before she was powerful, even when she was deformed and sold off, was always angry frustrated and defiant. She was never sheepish. She was never hiding her shame. She was always throwing something in your face. She was always making comments that were insightful yet biting and witty. Just think of that moment when she tells Geralt that she had a plan. And he says and that was going swimmingly. Her response was to admit the truth. But look at the way she admitted it. She says “like a drowning fish”. That’s Yennifer! There was not one scene in season two when we saw a glimpse even a small glimpse of that season one Yeniffer. And I think it’s a crying shame. Losing her powers doesn’t mean she has a personality transplant. Someone at Netflix needs to wake up smell the coffee and really make sure the writers understand that season one Yennifer I’d the one we love. Season two was someone who was sheepish about losing her powers, shying away not telling people she was losing her powers, not saying anything to anyone that was insightful or biting. When I asked why she doesn’t portal them out of here, she replies it’s complicated. Season one Yennefer would’ve said oh and you’re a mage, now! You know what it takes to portal someone out of here?
I’m sad that no one is addressing this no one is pushing the directors are the actors to face up and realize that the failure of season two is the loss of this character! In spite of everything that goes well and goes right this one thing goes wrong and it’s sad because it’s a big deal! It’s like Yennifer just isn’t Yen anymore!
Finally someone said it I completely agree! She’s a very great actress but the script didn’t do her justice. She also wasn’t as fashionable this season either (I read somewhere they got new designers) no powers doesnt mean that she can’t dress powerful and sound confident. I believe season 1 yen would have been furious about losing her powers (I didn’t see that big of a fight to get them back ) not sad through the whole season.
So you want to keep her one dimensional and never changing?
Character development is a journy with lot of ups and downs and everchanging goals and desires as you go.
In case of Yennefer, Netflix writers took many liberties and totaly rewrote Yen from the books and made her the most complex character in the saga.
I'll admit that they aren't best writers I've ever seen but I do like Yen's character journy.
Is it that hard to imagine that losing the only thing that made her independent and free would humble and even break her?
I mean, even by the end of season 1 at the piek of her power she was already demoralized, depresed and in her own words.. ready to die.
And on top of that she lost her chaos/power.
Of course she isn't going to be the same person after all that.
And yet she still didn't give up, dug deep and found strength to look for a higher purpose and it was her maternal instict that led her there.
The missing link for her fulfilment was ironicaly the same thing she had to sacrifice for her power, motherhood.
And by finally making the biggest self-sacrifice possible, she deserved both back.
All in all, I like the changes made to Yen's story arc, her origin story was top notch and Yennefer of Vengeberg is by far the most interesting character in the saga.
Because this arc was about her changing and not being one dimensional… she isn’t feisty and fierce because that is who she is, it is because she had to look out for herself her whole life… she avoid vulnerability at all cost and this arc was about her getting to know who she is without her magic/power
Yen in season one is more true to the books. Season 2, didnt care for her at all.
Oh and losing your power only to get it back, isnt a character arc. Having Ciri grow into her daughter and the changes that come with that are.
@@brettwb7803 it is a character arc when it teaches you a lesson. She had to learn to sacrifice and to think about someone else before herself. Here you go, this is your arc. And yeah Yennefer was more close to the book character in season 1 but that would not make sense for her to stay like that as she is becoming a mother to Ciri, if there is something that teaches you to be selfless in life, it’s to become a mom. So she changed, which makes her a hundred time more interesting
Shes not good as yen
Listen Ayannefer makes The Witcher tick period, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show!
@@moneyman5940 she was shot
Even after 3 years, I just can't stand anya chalotra playing Yennefer. It's just so wrong. One of the worst casts ever.
Why?
Listen Anyannefer makes The Witcher tick, trust me you won't change my mind...she's the best part of the show period.