WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Cruella, now playing in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access.
Cruella's Emma Thompson detailed why her character, the Baroness, is "unforgivable."
At a press conference attended by CBR, Thompson shared, "She is hardened, completely, and believes in hardness. She thinks that's the only way, and that is so unusual about her."
She added that, like her co-star Emma Stone, she was "very interested" in the dark side of a female character. Thompson shared, "Because they're so rarely allowed to be dark. We're all supposed to nice and good, aren't we? And bad mothers are simply unforgivable. I mean, nobody can find words for the bad mother."
Thompson also elaborated on how the Baroness is so single-minded in how she behaves, citing a specific line by the Baroness in the Disney film. "She says, 'If I hadn't been single-minded, I might have had to put my genius at the back of the drawer,'" the actor recalled. "Like so many other women of genius, who died without producing anything and without using their genius. What did they do? And actually, it is a very good point." Thompson concluded that the Baroness' "commitment to her own creativity is rather admirable, I think, and difficult."
Thompson also revealed during the press conference that she based the Baroness character on a variety of wicked people she's encountered while working in show business.
"I suppose the Baroness is a mixture of all kinds of people. Venal, she's quite venal, but her greed is really just for herself," the actor shared. "It's like she can't bear anyone else to succeed in any way. She has to destroy all the competition, instead of thinking that the competition might bring her game up, might make her better."
Academy Award winner Emma Stone stars in Disney's Cruella, an all-new live-action feature film about the rebellious early days of one of cinema's most notorious – and notoriously fashionable – villains, the legendary Cruella de Vil. Cruella, which is set in 1970s London amidst the punk rock revolution, follows a young grifter named Estella, a clever and creative girl determined to make a name for herself with her designs. She befriends a pair of young thieves who appreciate her appetite for mischief, and together they are able to build a life for themselves on the London streets. One day, Estella's flair for fashion catches the eye of the Baroness von Hellman, a fashion legend who is devastatingly chic and terrifyingly haute, played by two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson. But their relationship sets in motion a course of events and revelations that will cause Estella to embrace her wicked side and become the raucous, fashionable and revenge-bent Cruella.
Directed by Craig Gillespie, Cruella stars Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, Joel Fry, Emily Beecham, Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Mark Strong. The film is currently available in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.