These Millennium Series stories can be pretty brutal. If you’ve had a chance to read any of the novels or see any of the movies, you know they tend not to pull the punches, especially when it comes to the female lead, Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is not only extremely intelligent (to the point where it leads to her self-isolation), but she’s also a victim of abuse and sexual assault.

The next film in the franchise (which adapts the fourth book in the series), The Girl in the Spider’s Web, will take place after a lot of her past has been confronted (though, of course, there is one other key element ready to haunt her), and it sees her really taking control of the situation, becoming a defender of women against men. Given the political climate today, with the #MeToo movement taking down Hollywood moguls and politicians alike, it’d be easy to assume that this film was made to bank on the momentum of that movement.

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At a recent press event attend by LRM, star Claire Foy denied that the movement had anything to do with the direction of the film, but that it certainly can help its impact. Here’s what she said:

“I think it was really interesting actually because we were doing the prep while that was all going on. And I took great solace in the fact that this movie and the idea of it was free. It wasn’t jumping on, what would be seen as the bandwagon. The interest in Lisbeth has always been there. Everyone’s always been deeply fascinated by her. And much like the Me Too, that’s not because it’s timely or it’s kind of suddenly in the zeitgeist and it’s newsworthy.”

“It’s always been there. It’s a reality. The difference is that people are now listening and talking about it openly as opposed to just ignoring it. And that’s the same with Lisbeth. And I think that’s an interesting thing that I’ve never even thought about before. What he said about she’s now the center of the film, is that now you can trust in an audience loving a difficult character.”

“She’s not lovable. She’s not polite. She’s not pretty. She’s not everything that you think a female protagonist is supposed to be, soft. And you know she’s hard and she makes really terrible, terrible decisions and you don’t know whether you can get behind all of them. And I think that’s the interesting thing about it and obviously she’s survived her abuse. That’s just how I see her, as a survivor. And if that therefore represents people, represents a certain movement then that’s amazing.”

Admittedly, I haven’t had a chance to read the fourth or fifth novel in this series, so I am not sure just how crazy and brutal things get. I’d be interested to see if the films retain that edge that was captured so gloriously in the original Swedish film and the David Fincher remake.

What do you think of Foy’s comments and do you agree with her regarding Lisbeth? Let us know down below!

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SOURCE: LRM Online