Netflix's The Witcher: Wolverhampton actress stars alongside Hollywood heavyweights
From Wolverhampton to the Northern Kingdoms - one Black Country actress starred alongside Hollywood heavyweights as the eagerly-anticipated TV adaptation of The Witcher came to Netflix.
Anya Chalotra joins Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Mimi Ndiweni, Eamon Farren and more in the long-anticipated series based on the hit novels by Andrzej Sapkowski.
The Penn actress stars as Yennefer, a sorceress from Vengerberg who becomes Geralt of Rivia's true love. Yennefer makes her first appearance in the series – which is set over multiple timelines in the first season – as a young hunchback who has been disowned by her family, before eventually being given the chance at a new life as a mage.
Speaking to Cinemablend about how the prosthetics and makeup affected her performance, she said: "I really approached it the same. For me, it's just one journey. Of course you have that huge physical demand of her in her childhood.
"I would have loved more time to develop and to discover what those inhibitions were, those restrictions were... Automatically when you're in the chair for three hours before you go onto set, as the younger Yennefer, I am getting into the headspace of the character.
"The prosthetic, the hunchback, made me look at the floor and because I was looking at the floor I was a lot more self-conscious and I felt inferior and I was scared to use my voice.
"That helped the way I used my voice, the way I responded to people."
Chalotra, a former pupil at St. Dominic's Grammar School for Girls in Brewood, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art as well as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
She has starred in multiple theatre productions, including Much Ado About Nothing and The Village, before making her TV debut in 2018 as Jennifer Ashman in Wanderlust.
She then went on to star as Lily Marbury in The ABC Murders as well as the voice of Robin Loxley in Sherwood before being cast in The Witcher.
Created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, the first season of The Witcher came to Netflix on December 20. A second season was confirmed ahead of its release on November 13.
The Witcher follows the story of Geralt of Rivia, a solitary monster hunter, who struggles to find his place in a world. Destiny hurtles him toward Yennefer, a powerful sorceress, and Cirilla, a young princess with a special gift, and the three must learn to navigate independently the increasingly volatile Continent.
It has spawned a successful video game series as well as a series of comic books, tabletop games and card games.
