After recently starring in the Russo brothers’ The Gray Man, Jessica Henwick is back on Netflix with Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. The actress is no stranger to the streamer, having previously starred as Colleen Wing across its various Marvel Comics shows. Since then, however, Henwick has gone on to land several major movie roles, including Bugs in the much-awaited follow-up The Matrix Resurrections.Meanwhile, in Johnson’s Knives Out sequel, the actress plays the role of Kate Hudson’s (Birdie) assistant Peg. And before she agreed to sign on, however, the actress had two specific conditions.
Jessica Henwick Went Up Against Male And Female Actors For Her Role
For Henwick, her casting in Johnson’s movie made for quite a unique experience since she was up against a wider group of actors, although the actress never asked who they were.
“It's kind of up to you. You can ask if you want,” she explained. “Usually when you're down to the finals, you'll hear through the grapevine. But the interesting thing about Peg was, I was going up against guys as well. Peg was not specified as male or female.”
And because the details surrounding the character were quite vague, Henwick was free to put her own spin on the character.
“The core arc of her was in the script, but she was very open to interpretation. Knowing the other actors who were in the mix [to get the role], we were all so different, and I'm sure our reads were very different,” she explained. “But when I read it, I thought: ‘If I'm going to do this, I want to have fun with it. How can I have fun with it?’”
The Actress Had Two Conditions For Accepting The Role
While the role was certainly appealing to Henwick, the actress had two conditions for accepting it. The first had to do with a prior commitment.
“When I was offered Glass Onion, I said: "I'll do it, but Rian, two things: A) I will only do it if I can leave production for a week to go shoot this short film, because I've made this commitment, and I know that's crazy to turn down a massive film for a short film, but I'm committed, and I have to do it…” she explained.
Recently, the actress wrote, directed, and starred in the short Bus Girl, which Henwick shot entirely on a Xiaomi phone. Having finished working on that, she’s looking forward to doing another short although she knows she’ll have to plan for it.
“I can see that it does derail your life, and you give yourself over to it,” Henwick said. “So, having done the short, I do want to do it again, but I know I need to carve out six months, where nothing else is happening, so I can just devote it to making a film.”
As for Henwick’s second condition, it had to do with her interest in filmmaking. “And B) I'll take this film if you let me shadow you," the actress continued.
And when they started production, Henwick got to watch Johnson work closely. “So he very kindly allowed me to kind of follow him around at the monitors, and pick his brain, and, honestly, just watch and learn from him by osmosis,” she revealed.
Jessica Henwick Has Filmmaking Plans For The Future
As it turns out, Henwick has plans to become more involved in film production in the future. “I do foresee that one day I will transition behind the camera, into a more production-based role,” she revealed. “And that will be ok. It will be the next phase. I don't know when it is, but it's there.”
That said, it is also worth noting that she’s worked behind the scenes in the past. Long before Henwick became a Hollywood star, the actress had been a production assistant until she had enough.
In one of the films that she worked on, Henwick ended up inflating 2,000 balloons manually for a wedding scene, forcing her to pull an all-nighter.
“It got to 6:30 a.m. And I had just finished, and I was dying,” Henwick recalled. “And an actor walked on the set and she was like, 'Oh, my God, it's so early.' I literally went, 'I quit.' I walked off the film.”
These days, it also seems that she’s also found a better type of behind-the-scenes work for herself. “My main focus is writing,” Henwick continued. “To me, that feels like the purest form of creativity that I can get my hands on.”
In fact, she has been busy writing for some upcoming projects (reportedly with HBO and Amazon), although Henwick is keeping details under wraps for now. “Hopefully I can announce some of my shows soon,” the actress recently teased.
That said, Henwick also assures fans that she has no plans to leave acting altogether, although she’s specific about what she wants to do next. “A period drama, because I grew up on period dramas,” she explained. “I enjoy comedy as well. More comedy, yeah.”
