L-R: Esme Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman/Amazon(NEW YORK) — Based on the 2011 film of the same name, the Amazon Prime Original series Hanna is now available for streaming. The new series stars Esmé Creed-Miles taking over the title role originated by Saoirse Ronan.
In the series, Joel Kinnaman plays a mercenary who steals a baby, destined to be a government assassin, from a secret facility. He raises her in seclusion, training her in the deadly arts, while teaching her that somewhere in the outside world, a relentless CIA agent wants her dead.
Mireille Enos plays that agent. The project gave her and her The Killing co-star Kinnaman a chance to work together again — though this time they’re on opposite sides. She joked to ABC Radio about how she kept texting Kinnaman about what would become his role, hoping he’d bite.
“Yeah, well at first I was asking him for recommendations for who would be good for the part — European actors — and then…I was trying to not be too heavy handed,” Enos laughed. “But I kept [miming texting] like… ‘So What do you think?'”
Kinnaman added, “I think we said something along the lines after we finished the last [Killing] episode, ‘You know, like, in 10 years we’re going to do something completely different.’ And this is five years after we finished The Killing. But I think we just needed something that was very different and dynamic — this was perfect for that.
The part required Creed-Miles to undergo extensive martial arts training — some from jujitsu practitioner Kinnaman himself — instead of relying on stunt doubles to sell the action.
“It’s so part of Hannah…it’s who she is,” the actress says of the deadly skill. “It had to be holistic.”
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