In Richard LaGravenese’s “Beautiful Creatures,” Emmy Rossum’s Ridley Duchannes captures the essence of the character from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s bestselling YA novel, while making dramatic and effective external changes.
Gone is the lollypop-sucking Lolita with the pink streaks in her hair and the cosplay wardrobe. Instead, the character has a still-sexy Old Hollywood glamour that makes the linkage between Ridley’s dark caster powers as a man-luring siren and the fact that retro movie starlets were also called sirens.
I sat down with Rossum last weekend and we discussed Ridley’s big screen makeover and her inspirations, as well as a new scene that explores Ridley’s Claiming, the moment she became a dark caster.
I was a bit less successful in getting Rossum to go along with my attempted thematic linkage between Ridley and Fiona, her character on Showtime’s “Shameless.” Not all reportorial tangents can be successful and I still insist this one makes sense.
Finally, Rossum seems excited about exploring Ridley’s progression in potential sequels, though she gives away a plot point from the new book in Garcia and Stohl’s saga. She does, however, offer a helpful “spoiler warning.”
Check out the full interview above.
Stay tuned over the next week for more interests with the stars of “Beautiful Creatures,” including Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis.
“Beautiful Creatures” opens on February 14.