The Surprising Parts Of The Witcher Season 1 That Made Anya Chalotra Cringe
In both its first season and continuing into the recently released Season 2, the story of Netflix epic fantasy series "The Witcher" revolves around three principal characters: Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Princess Ciri (Freya Allan), and Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra). Whereas Geralt begins as a supernaturally powerful monster hunter, and Ciri as the youngest member of a royal family, Yennefer is a mostly typical girl living through numerous hardships upon her introduction. By the end of Season 1, she's become not just a powerful sorceress but one of the strongest characters to appear onscreen, culminating in her fiery decimation of an entire army.
Chalotra had some acting experience prior to her star-making turn in "The Witcher," but none of her few prior roles could begin to match Netflix's hit in terms of popularity, claiming viewership from 76 million Netflix member households in just the first four weeks of Season 1's availability (via The Hollywood Reporter). However, while Chalotra's work helped "The Witcher" become a smash success, she revealed in a recent interview released in conjunction with Season 2 that looking back on her Season 1 performance now makes her cringe.
Anya Chalotra has a hard time watching her scenes from Season 1
"The Witcher" Season 2 premiered on Netflix on December 17 to generally positive reviews. In the lead-up to the season's release, The Guardian published a profile of Anya Chalotra, largely chronicling her journey as an actor prior to securing her "Witcher" role. With that in mind, interviewer Joel Golby asked Chalotra if she found that her performance in Season 2 improved upon her work in Season 1 in any way.
"I don't want to undermine other people's enjoyment of it, but when I watched season one I was cringing at most parts," she replied. "It doesn't mean I wasn't so proud of the work that I'd done. I criticised every part of it and felt that I didn't believe enough about my work, but I put so much work into it, so I can really appreciate when I watched it, like, the emotional attachments in each scene and what I had to go through to deliver that."
So, while Chalotra began by clarifying that her opinion of her own performance is no way meant to undermine what any viewer may take from it, she personally recounted finding virtually all of her appearances throughout Season 1 to be cringeworthy. Fortunately, the "Witcher" star also characterized this as an opportunity for growth. "I've done that bit now, she said. "I've done the 'learning in public'. Am I better now? I dunno. We'll see."