The Daily Quirk: Next, we’re going to see you as Freddie Lounds in NBC’s Hannibal. What attracted you to the role?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: She is quite something. People who are fans of the Thomas Harris books, or even the movies, will know that she was a he. And they know how Stephan Lang and Philip Seymour Hoffman played the character before, but she is very, very different from those interpretations. Bryan Fuller, who is the creator of the show, sat down with me when we first were starting to shoot back in August. And he showed me a picture of Rebekah Brooks. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her but she ran news at the World (News of the World) and The Sun and News International, and she has now arrested currently under suspicion of a phone hacking scandal in the UK. And if you see a picture of Rebekah Brooks, you’ll notice that she has this massive, beautiful mane of red, curly hair. So he showed me this picture and said ‘This is who you’re based on.’ So we had a little chat about that and one of the great anecdotes said about her was that ‘She’s the type of woman who can get you fired, yet have you send her thank you flowers.’ And I went home after this meeting and read a great Vanity Fair article about Rebekah Brooks by Suzanna Andrews called ‘Untangling Rebekah Brooks.’ So I read it before shooting Episode 2 and it was a great kind of insight into who Freddie might be. She’s a younger version and I call her spirited. She’s unflappable and she ignores the rules at every point possible, if she needs to. And she’s really good at her job, so I think that’s something. She sometimes fails, but she always manages to find her way around things.
The Daily Quirk: Because this role has been portrayed twice before by Stephan Lang and Philip Seymour Hoffman, were you ever hesitant in taking on the part?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: No, not really. I think the gender switch always gives so much freedom and Bryan has a brilliant way of inspiring his actors to, first of all, want to work really hard for him, and also to feel very confident in your ability to create a character that is entirely your own. So I loved both interpretations and I actually rewatched Red Dragon right before I started, but they’re so different. And the interpretations are so different down to even the costumes that I’m wearing. Our costume designer is amazing and has Freddie outfitted as fresh and central and so high fashion, she always looks her best. So everything is so different about it that I think I felt really confident about making her my own without having to worry about comparing. And that would be a really scary comparison because they are amazing!
The Daily Quirk: Now, are you anything like Freddie in real life?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I like to think not, because she doesn’t have much of a moral compass. So I like to think that I have a little more of a moral compass but it makes her like Sybil in that she’s so much fun to play, because I have these little parts of myself that don’t get to come out very often but I now get to bring out and kind of fan the flames of these personality traits that I don’t think I really have. But I certainly am a passionate person and I certainly can be a go-getter, so in that sense sure, there are parts of myself that I’ve been able to explode and make them so much bigger to be able to explore her. When people see her and her personality, I’d like to think I’m a lot nicer. At least I hope.
The Daily Quirk: You could say that you have one thing in common with Freddie, in that you’re both writers. Your poem “Casa Loma at Midnight” was just recently published in the Great Lakes Review and Freddie is a journalist. What inspires you as a writer?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I’ve been writing poetry since I was really little. My parents took me camping a lot and every summer we’d go to a different provincial park in Ontario and since then I’ve continued that tradition. My partner, he and I love to go camping, so we go to provincial parks and national parks and that is where I’d say I draw most of my inspiration, from the outdoors. That particular poem is actually about Toronto, but it’s still about outdoors Toronto. So yeah, my main inspiration is outdoors, experiential kind of stuff. So nothing like Freddie, she’s a criminal justice journalist.
The Daily Quirk: You could say that you have one thing in common with Freddie, in that you’re both writers. Your poem “Casa Loma at Midnight” was just recently published in the Great Lakes Review and Freddie is a journalist. What inspires you as a writer?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I’ve been writing poetry since I was really little. My parents took me camping a lot and every summer we’d go to a different provincial park in Ontario and since then I’ve continued that tradition. My partner, he and I love to go camping, so we go to provincial parks and national parks and that is where I’d say I draw most of my inspiration, from the outdoors. That particular poem is actually about Toronto, but it’s still about outdoors Toronto. So yeah, my main inspiration is outdoors, experiential kind of stuff. So nothing like Freddie, she’s a criminal justice journalist.
The Daily Quirk: So you’d never give journalism a try?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: Well I am enrolled in university right now getting my certificate in English Literature and I did my Master’s in Shakespeare, so I certainly have a passion for words. But no, I’ve never done journalism.
The Daily Quirk: What scoop can you give us about the show without risking a Hannibal Lecter-style wrath from producers?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I like that, a Hannibal Lecter-style wrath. I think Bryan would come down on me with a Lecter-style wrath if I gave away too much. What can you expect? It’s hard because I think there are so many twists and turns that I think the audience will be excited about, so it’s hard to not give too much away. The interaction between Mads (Mikkelson) and Hugh (Dancy) who play Hannibal and Will Graham is something to really look forward to. And the beginning of their relationship is something that the audience has never really seen before, so being able to know, as an audience, where we’re going to end up is really exciting. Because we all know what Hannibal does, and we’re going to know that from Episode 1, but nobody else knows what Hannibal does. So there’s a lot of tension and suspense which is really exciting. I can say we start off four or five years before Red Dragon, so it’s pre-Hannibal being caught and it revolves around the cop story where we start off. So people can look forward to seeing that at the very beginning and all the consequences that happen afterwards. And that’s as safe as I can talk. Freddie gets to interact with a lot or really exciting people, too. So, it’s been a fantastic ride.
The Daily Quirk: It is a big change to go from the period pieces to a show that’s really modern like Hannibal?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: Yeah, it’s fun to be able to switch. This is a new territory and it’s so much en vogue right now to do these kind of darker, modern pieces and it’s exciting to be in this realm of dramatic modern stuff. I mean, Freddie, as she is a journalist, still gives me the great fun of being able to utilize my love of words because Bryan writes a lot of great vocabulary for her. So in that sense, period pieces have that kind of rich vocabulary so it’s familiar in that way. But it’s nice to take off the corsets and stop walking around cobblestone streets. I’m only 5’2″ so I always have to be in heels or on apple boxes so it’s nice to be in heels and on apple boxes on flat surfaces rather than cobblestone and dirt.
Lara Jean Chorostecki: She is quite something. People who are fans of the Thomas Harris books, or even the movies, will know that she was a he. And they know how Stephan Lang and Philip Seymour Hoffman played the character before, but she is very, very different from those interpretations. Bryan Fuller, who is the creator of the show, sat down with me when we first were starting to shoot back in August. And he showed me a picture of Rebekah Brooks. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her but she ran news at the World (News of the World) and The Sun and News International, and she has now arrested currently under suspicion of a phone hacking scandal in the UK. And if you see a picture of Rebekah Brooks, you’ll notice that she has this massive, beautiful mane of red, curly hair. So he showed me this picture and said ‘This is who you’re based on.’ So we had a little chat about that and one of the great anecdotes said about her was that ‘She’s the type of woman who can get you fired, yet have you send her thank you flowers.’ And I went home after this meeting and read a great Vanity Fair article about Rebekah Brooks by Suzanna Andrews called ‘Untangling Rebekah Brooks.’ So I read it before shooting Episode 2 and it was a great kind of insight into who Freddie might be. She’s a younger version and I call her spirited. She’s unflappable and she ignores the rules at every point possible, if she needs to. And she’s really good at her job, so I think that’s something. She sometimes fails, but she always manages to find her way around things.
The Daily Quirk: Because this role has been portrayed twice before by Stephan Lang and Philip Seymour Hoffman, were you ever hesitant in taking on the part?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: No, not really. I think the gender switch always gives so much freedom and Bryan has a brilliant way of inspiring his actors to, first of all, want to work really hard for him, and also to feel very confident in your ability to create a character that is entirely your own. So I loved both interpretations and I actually rewatched Red Dragon right before I started, but they’re so different. And the interpretations are so different down to even the costumes that I’m wearing. Our costume designer is amazing and has Freddie outfitted as fresh and central and so high fashion, she always looks her best. So everything is so different about it that I think I felt really confident about making her my own without having to worry about comparing. And that would be a really scary comparison because they are amazing!
The Daily Quirk: Now, are you anything like Freddie in real life?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I like to think not, because she doesn’t have much of a moral compass. So I like to think that I have a little more of a moral compass but it makes her like Sybil in that she’s so much fun to play, because I have these little parts of myself that don’t get to come out very often but I now get to bring out and kind of fan the flames of these personality traits that I don’t think I really have. But I certainly am a passionate person and I certainly can be a go-getter, so in that sense sure, there are parts of myself that I’ve been able to explode and make them so much bigger to be able to explore her. When people see her and her personality, I’d like to think I’m a lot nicer. At least I hope.
The Daily Quirk: You could say that you have one thing in common with Freddie, in that you’re both writers. Your poem “Casa Loma at Midnight” was just recently published in the Great Lakes Review and Freddie is a journalist. What inspires you as a writer?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I’ve been writing poetry since I was really little. My parents took me camping a lot and every summer we’d go to a different provincial park in Ontario and since then I’ve continued that tradition. My partner, he and I love to go camping, so we go to provincial parks and national parks and that is where I’d say I draw most of my inspiration, from the outdoors. That particular poem is actually about Toronto, but it’s still about outdoors Toronto. So yeah, my main inspiration is outdoors, experiential kind of stuff. So nothing like Freddie, she’s a criminal justice journalist.
The Daily Quirk: You could say that you have one thing in common with Freddie, in that you’re both writers. Your poem “Casa Loma at Midnight” was just recently published in the Great Lakes Review and Freddie is a journalist. What inspires you as a writer?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I’ve been writing poetry since I was really little. My parents took me camping a lot and every summer we’d go to a different provincial park in Ontario and since then I’ve continued that tradition. My partner, he and I love to go camping, so we go to provincial parks and national parks and that is where I’d say I draw most of my inspiration, from the outdoors. That particular poem is actually about Toronto, but it’s still about outdoors Toronto. So yeah, my main inspiration is outdoors, experiential kind of stuff. So nothing like Freddie, she’s a criminal justice journalist.
The Daily Quirk: So you’d never give journalism a try?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: Well I am enrolled in university right now getting my certificate in English Literature and I did my Master’s in Shakespeare, so I certainly have a passion for words. But no, I’ve never done journalism.
The Daily Quirk: What scoop can you give us about the show without risking a Hannibal Lecter-style wrath from producers?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: I like that, a Hannibal Lecter-style wrath. I think Bryan would come down on me with a Lecter-style wrath if I gave away too much. What can you expect? It’s hard because I think there are so many twists and turns that I think the audience will be excited about, so it’s hard to not give too much away. The interaction between Mads (Mikkelson) and Hugh (Dancy) who play Hannibal and Will Graham is something to really look forward to. And the beginning of their relationship is something that the audience has never really seen before, so being able to know, as an audience, where we’re going to end up is really exciting. Because we all know what Hannibal does, and we’re going to know that from Episode 1, but nobody else knows what Hannibal does. So there’s a lot of tension and suspense which is really exciting. I can say we start off four or five years before Red Dragon, so it’s pre-Hannibal being caught and it revolves around the cop story where we start off. So people can look forward to seeing that at the very beginning and all the consequences that happen afterwards. And that’s as safe as I can talk. Freddie gets to interact with a lot or really exciting people, too. So, it’s been a fantastic ride.
The Daily Quirk: It is a big change to go from the period pieces to a show that’s really modern like Hannibal?
Lara Jean Chorostecki: Yeah, it’s fun to be able to switch. This is a new territory and it’s so much en vogue right now to do these kind of darker, modern pieces and it’s exciting to be in this realm of dramatic modern stuff. I mean, Freddie, as she is a journalist, still gives me the great fun of being able to utilize my love of words because Bryan writes a lot of great vocabulary for her. So in that sense, period pieces have that kind of rich vocabulary so it’s familiar in that way. But it’s nice to take off the corsets and stop walking around cobblestone streets. I’m only 5’2″ so I always have to be in heels or on apple boxes so it’s nice to be in heels and on apple boxes on flat surfaces rather than cobblestone and dirt.
Great Interview thanks!!
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