'Hanna' Featurette: How Esme Creed-Miles Became The Teen Assassin
Based on the 2011 film of the same name, the new Amazon series Hanna has the burden of taking an acclaimed film and stretching it out into a full eight-episode season. Simultaneously, star Esme Creed-Miles has the burden of stepping into the shoes first worn by Oscar nominee Saoirse Ronan, putting her own spin on the titular pint-sized assassin who finds herself hunted by all manner of government officials. Amazon Prime Video has released a new Hanna featurette to mark the release of the first season on its streaming service and to delve into just how they made the anticipated TV series.
Hanna Featurette
Created and written by David Farr and directed by Sarah Adina Smith, Hanna follows the titular young girl who has been brought up all her life to be a trained assassin. She grows up isolated from society until one event sets off a chain reaction that sends her fleeing from a pursuing CIA agent and searching for the truth of her identity. In a similar way, star Esme Creed-Miles was thrown into the deep end in order to portray the extraordinary teen assassin.
"I was thrown into this world of training, and weightlifting, and boxing, and cardio. It's amazing to feel your body being capable of that. Even the basics of learning how to throw a good punch is very hard. The martial arts is very engaging and very cerebral, and it's great character prep," Creed-Miles says in the featurette.
And yet, an incredible fighting capability and stone-cold demeanor isn't what is extraordinary about Hanna. "What is special about Hannah is she's complex. She takes risks and she's smart, and she has a lot of love for people," Creed-Miles says. It's in that regard that Hanna purports to be more than just a thriller action-series. Mireille Enos, who plays CIA Agent Marissa Wiegler in the show, says, "One of the best parts of this show is the balance between delicate drama and really exciting action." And based on the critics' reviews of the series that call Hanna a "rare intelligent action thriller" and "grisly and gripping," it seems like it pulls that off.
Here is the official synopsis for Hanna, which is available to stream now on Amazon Prime Video:
In equal parts high-concept thriller and coming-of-age drama, HANNA follows the journey of an extraordinary young girl raised in the forest, as she evades the relentless pursuit of an off-book CIA agent and tries to unearth the truth behind who she is.