Is there anything better than a heroine who kicks ass?
Maybe a heroine who kicks assandtransforms from villain to hero over the course of the story?
Now, Sorsha is back and she’s queen.
Sorsha (Joanne Whalley).Lucasfilm
“We’re whole human beings.
Sorsha as an older person is still a combination of those things.”
She’s still got a romantic side."
Commander Ballantine (Ralph Ineson), Queen Arianna (Talisa Garcia), Sorsha (Joanne Whalley), King Hastur (Derek Horsham) and Graydon (Tony Revolori).Lucasfilm
Was it an easy yes for you?
JOANNE WHALLEY:It was, actually.
For years, there’d been rumors about revisitingWillow.
I never thought I would not be involved, either.
It’s a no-brainer.
Like it or not, I’m Princess Sorsha, and now, Queen Sorsha.
It would have [been] awful to not be involved in it.
I’m here; I can still handle a sword.
You know what I like about that it’s not a big deal.
It’s just, “Well, there’s a monster in front of me.
I’m going to have to deal with it.”
There’s a goddamn monster in front of you.
If you should probably get past, you’re going to have to deal with it.
It’s just very practical, and I love that about her.
It was pretty much there.
I don’t remember needing to have conversations like, “There’s something wrong with this character.”
It was a gift of a job.
The seeds were there.
It’s all there.
The old saying, when it’s good, it’s all in the script.
You mentioned you could still handle a sword, so is Sorsha still a badass?
Are we going to get to see her doing some of that fighting?
She’s not laying down.
I’m not going to say anything else, because it’ll spoil it.
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen her.
How would you describe her at this point in her life where we pick back up with her?
She’s older and wiser.
She’s carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she is struggling under that burden.
There are things looming for the people as a whole.
There’s stuff in her family relationships that are proving difficult.
They have no one to rely on if they think you’re going to crumble.
You have to carry it and carry it for everyone.
She doesn’t have an easy life.
Because they’re not always prepared to accept that.
It’s a tricky place that I think a lot of people find themselves in.
You have to make compromises.
It can be a burden.
That’s where we find her.
Something people really loved in the original film wasSorsha’s romance with Madmartigan.
Will we get more information about what happened between them in the intervening years?
It’s absolutely addressed.
You couldn’t do it without it.
You’ve alluded to it already, but her children are a big part of the story here.
Can you tease what that means for her or the show overall?
Some personalities are more suited to that than others.
There’s a time when your children become not just your children.
You never give up the parent-child relationship, but it evolves and shifts into a new dynamic.
It’s a very natural, normal evolution.
These things happen in families.
It’s a very different world, but it’s the same thing we all go through.
You mentioned her romanticism.
That’s the thing I really like about Sorsha.
She’s all of those things in one place.
It’s denying the spectrum of things that are there.
Her romantic streak hasn’t gone anywhere.
The idea of how she wants to make the kingdom safe, that’s a romantic notion.
The world that she wants to pass onto her children, that’s romantic.
She’s a whole person, and that’s why I love her.
