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Gwendoline Christie On Playing The Sandman’s Lucifer: ‘It’s Fun To Be Awful’ – Exclusive Image
The Game Of Thrones actor talks about stepping into some devilishly red shoes for the epic new Netflix series. Read more now at Empire.

Gwendoline Christie On Playing The Sandman’s Lucifer: ‘It’s Fun To Be Awful’ – Exclusive Image

As comic book readers will know, The Sandman is packed with big characters. Neil Gaiman’s game-changing, shape-shifting fantasy opus features a sprawling cast of gods and monsters – taking abstract concepts and giving them physical embodiments (prepare to meet Dream, Desire, Death and beyond), and mixing them in with a wider ensemble of mythological beings, deities, and pulp heroes. The cast for Netflix’s new series adaption, then, is suitably huge – and when the casting for the show started to be revealed, one pairing of actor and character stood especially tall in its brilliance: ‘Gwendoline Christie is Lucifer’.

After making a major mark on Game Of Thrones, the Lady Brienne actor is pivoting from noble knight to play the ultimate fallen angel – and she couldn’t be more excited. “I was so thrilled Allen Heinberg, co-showrunner] asked me to play Lucifer, because it is a grandiose part,” Christie tells Empire in the new [Avatar: The Way Of Water issue. “There are few castings that can supersede that – maybe God, whatever that is! Also, it’s fun to be awful.” For Heinberg (showrunning alongside David S. Goyer and Gaiman himself), her casting was a no-brainer. “Lucifer is this Bowie-esque creature in the comic book and I thought, ‘Well who is a bigger fucking rock star than Gwendoline Christie?’” he says.

Christie was confident that she could pull off playing a character who’s more than mere mortal, transcending the categorisations that earthly beings tend to box themselves into. “Neil clarified that Lucifer is a fallen angel, and that an angel doesn’t have gender at all,” she explains. “And I can play androgynous. We know that from Game Of Thrones, due to the way I look. So I hope that has helped in the portrayal of the character.” Start preparing now for a devilishly good performance.

Read Empire’s full The Sandman feature – talking to Gaiman, Goyer, Heinberg and their cast, with brand new exclusive images – in the Avatar: The Way Of Water issue, on sale now and available to order online here. The Sandman starts streaming on Netflix from 5 August.