Vera Farmiga, who plays Eleanor Bishop on Disney+'s Hawkeye, has revealed that she's actually a real archer.
In a press conference attended by CBR, Farmiga was asked why she took the role. Farmiga replied, "There's a a couple of things. Well, number one, I love archery, just hands down. I am an archer. You guys don't know this about me. My first job, I played an archer with Heath Ledger in a series called Roar, where I had my bow and arrow and I had my 40-pound pull-weight arrow... and I'm good at it, to be honest with you, so if I wasn't gonna be wielding that bow and arrow, I just wanted to be next to someone with true grit."
Farmiga's character, Eleanor, was created by Allan Heinberg, Kelly Thompson and Leonardo Romero. She first appeared in 2017's Hawkeye #7, which was a solo series focused on Kate. Initially, Kate believed her mother to be dead, but she soon learned that Eleanor had a deadly connection to classic Iron Man villain Madame Masque. As such, there's speculation Eleanor will be one Hawkeye's villains.
An Emmy Award-nominated actor, Farmiga is known for her roles on such TV shows as Bates Motel and When They See Us. She's also one of the leads in the Conjuring films, where she plays Lorraine Warren. The series that she mentions in her above quote -- 1997's Roar -- saw Conor, an Irishman in 400 AD played by Heath Ledger, fighting against Roman invaders. Roar, which aired on Fox, only ran for one season and was canceled due to low ratings.
Disney+'s Hawkeye series was first announced at Comic-Con International in San Diego 2019. The show -- which draws from Matt Fraction and David Aja's beloved twenty-two issue run --sees Clint Barton and Kate teaming up agafinst enemies he made while using the Ronin mantle between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Hawkeye will also feature a connection to this year's Black Widow film. That movie ended with Yelena Belova/Black Widow on the hunt for Barton after receiving information from the mysterious Valentina Allegra de Fontaine that he was involved in the death of Natasha Romanoff.
Recently, Hailee Steinfeld, who plays Kate, revealed that she tried to teach herself archery while preparing to film Hawkeye. However, she was unsuccessful. Later, Jeremy Renner, who plays Clint Barton, told her "you're not even shooting a real arrow, it's all CGI."
Created by Jonathan Igla, Hawkeye is slated to release Nov. 24 on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere. At this time, it's not clear if Farmiga will return for any subsequent projects in the MCU.