'Westworld Season 4' on HBO: How theatre actor Tessa Thompson became a Hollywood star
‘Westworld’ made a comeback with its latest edition to entertain its ardent fans on HBO on June 26. The Emmy-winning series has garnered rave reviews from fans and critics for the brilliant portrayal of a futuristic dystopian world of human bots who go through many emotional upheavals wherein nothing is the same for them again. The characters also go through a rollercoaster and their stories evolve over the course of the series. ‘Westworld’ has been adapted from an iconic 1973 film of the same name and the first season premiered in 2016. The show has been created and conceptualized by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
Tessa Thompson plays the role of Charlotte ‘Hale’ Halores since the first season of the Emmy-winning series. Charlotte debuted in the world of the human bots, lost her human body, and was replaced by one of many copies of Dolores Abernathy. With 'Halores' ruthlessly using Charlotte's identity and being at the top position of the board of Delos, it's going to be amazing to see how her villainous character arc is going to evolve more in ‘Westworld’ Season 4.
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Thompson’s career as a theatre actor
In an old Issue magazine interview from November 2015, Thompson talked about being a theatre actor before getting into Hollywood. She said, “I started acting in theatre. Los Angeles professional theatre is a community that doesn’t get its due from outsiders. I worked in theatre and then television – film was an afterthought in some ways. I never grew up watching movies thinking I wanted to be in them, but I always grew up doing theatre and I wanted to be on Broadway. So I still get involved in LA theatre and celebrate it and go to shows.”
Thompson said that when she started doing theatre, it paved way for many other opportunities for her. She said, “It was through the LA Ladies Choir that I met Nicole as well as lots of photographers, stylists, musicians, models, artists, directors—it was the beginning of my immersion in the LA arts scene and the experimental scene. It got me into the Silver Lake and Echo Park arts community. I’ve always been interested in subcultures and in LA it’s harder to find, but I have managed to have love affairs with different subcultures like the late-night DJ world that some of my friends are in and the bike scene, which is really vibrant in Los Angeles. In a city where everyone drives, there’s a great community of people who bike. I feel closer to those communities, in a way, than I do to Hollywood. It’s only because of my last few projects that I’ve become more integrated into Hollywood.”
Thompson also revealed that she had so many friends within the LA arts community who didn’t even realize that she was an actor. Thompson added, “In fact, I have so many friends in the LA arts community who, until recently, didn’t even realize I was an actor. I would see these people out at nights like No American (which Nicole hosted at El Cid), where they wouldn’t play any American music. I studied cultural anthropology in college, so I’ve always been interested in music from different cultures. That was my scene, and for some reason, it never came up that I was actually acting. Over the last year, these people have seen me in Selma and Dear White People, and they were shocked that I’m in Hollywood too.”
