Krysten Ritter has created a new X-rated super hero in Jessica Jones
ESSICA JONES is no wonder woman. She drinks to excess, has guilt-ridden one night stands, slinks around New York wearing a hoodie and a pout.
From such gloomy raw material the twin powerhouses of Marvel and Netflix hope to weave television gold, with a new series chronicling the noir-ish adventures of this comic-book anti-heroine.
It’s unlike any super-hero adaptation we’ve seen before.
“It’s different from anything else in the Marvel genre,” nods actress Krysten Ritter, who portrays Jones as a brooding, morally-murky loner.
“There’s nothing like her in the movies. The show is not big and bright. This is a dark, small, seedy universe. Jessica is not trying to save the world.
"She is not trying to be involved in anything. It is a psychological thriller first and a super hero show second. I love that about it.”
X-rated moments abound.
The first episode alone arguably contains more exposed flesh than every Marvel film of the past five years combined.
Ritter defends the steamy content, pointing to its adult-only origins.
“It’s based on the Alias comic, which is rated ‘r’,” she says.
“So, really, it’s just maintaining the integrity of that. Those sort of ratings obviously don’t apply to Netflix. But that was the idea — to stay as true to it as possible.”
BREAKING BAD
Petite, with vast dark eyes and a fashionable hair-cut, Ritter has been an actress to watch for going on a decade.
She had her own sit-com — the short-lived Don’t Trust The B In Apartment 23 — and impressed as an American-in-Ireland in the U2-related film, Killing Bono.
If she is known, however, it is as Jesse Pinkman’s tragic girlfriend, Jane Margolis, in Breaking Bad.
“That was a huge experience for me,” she says of the notoriously nihilistic show. “It probably helped me get this job.”
Jessica Jones and Breaking Bad have a great deal in common, it might be argued. Both chronicle the travails of complicated characters locked in a downward spiral of self-loathing and resentment of the world. Ritter shrugs.
Maybe — but Walter White was not uppermost in her mind when shooting the new series.
“I just came in on focused on what I was doing. I tried not to think about Breaking Bad.”
Still, she will agree that Jessica Jones breaks new ground in that it puts the template of the ‘difficult man’ — as seen in Breaking Bad and also The Sopranos, Mad Men, etc — in service of a woman’s story.
“It’s certainly one of the first times we are seeing female characters doing these things. I didn’t feel any pressure — but it was exciting, for sure.
"Really, this is just such a great part for me. It was a big deal because it is a major step for a woman.
“I love that I am not dressed in high heels or with big boobs all that stuff,” she continues. “I don’t have to do that. Jessica is not about her gender.
"I hope this show finds an audience beyond Marvel fans and appeals to the next round of girls coming up. I am so honoured to be part of that.”
Ritter is upfront about not growing up a comic book fan. This isn’t her world and the scrutiny from fanboys will surely take some getting used to.
She gets that it’s part of the deal. She isn’t just playing a character. She is representing a franchise.
“I have a super-long resumé. I’ve been working long time and I’ve done a lot of things — comedy, drama. All you can do is keep working at becoming a better actor.
I think everything I have done before has led to me getting this role.”
LEARNING PROCESS
Shooting the 13-episode series was akin to making a movie, says Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity in The Matrix), who plays Jones’s mercurial corporate employer, Jeri Hogarth (a man in the original strip).
“The only difference was that, in a movie you know the beginning, middle, and end,” she says.
“They were really secretive about the scripts and were giving them to you as you went along. You were learning week to week.
“But you just have to trust the writers of the show. You know the calibre is so high that you can relax a little bit.
"Netflix have a totally different way of doing things. Whenever I’ve done network TV it feels kind of ‘tight’ creatively — it just feels safe.
"With Netflix there’s no safety net. They are breaking walls. Certainly as a viewer, I don’t want to see the same formula again and again. I want to watch something that is creative.”
Moss takes issue with the suggestion that Jones is not a sympathetic hero. Initially, she may be hard to warm to.
But as we get to know the character, her vulnerability bubbles to the surface.
“There is a moment where you are going to care and root for her. Not because she is trying to be likeable.
"You are rooting for her because she is a human being struggling with really big stuff. I’ve never seen a woman play this kind of role.
"She may not be sympathetic at the beginning. But that all changes.”
MARVEL UNIVERSE
The series takes place in the same Marvel cinematic universe as the Avengers movies and as Daredevil, Marvel’s other Netflix series.
Jones is a super-hero who has renounced her fight against evil and now grinds out a living as a private detective.
First look at #JessicaJones! pic.twitter.com/18joXiVpcS
— Jessica Jones (@JessicaJones) September 17, 2015
She is haunted by a tragedy in her past, seeking relief in meaningless flings and endless bottles of whiskey.
“When we first meet her, it’s about those smaller personal struggles,” says Ritter.
“It’s what makes the show. She is everything I wished for as an actress. She is funny sometimes, bad-ass at other moments.
"She has super strength. I get to do action stunts. It’s the role of a lifetime.”
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