Gwendoline Christie: 'Flux Gourmet' is 'an expression of my personality'

LOS ANGELES, June 24 (UPI) -- Game of Thrones and Star Wars star Gwendoline Christie said her new movie, Flux Gourmet, in theaters and video-on-demand Friday, reflects herself more than her blockbusters.

"I have been desperate to do something that has felt like more of an expression of my personality and who I am," Christie told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

Writer/director Peter Strickland cast Christie, 43, as Jan Stevens, the head of the Sonic Catering Institute. Jan teaches interns whom she selects how to make art by combining cuisine and sound. In one scene, students plug headphones into their food.

Christie said the art film matches "my aesthetic, my tastes, the things that fascinate and obsess me, the things that inspire me."

As an actor, Christie said the notion of expressing oneself via food and sound appealed to her. Christie said the film's Sonic Catering Institute represented "the unending desire to transform and to transport others."

In the institute's abstract world of art, Jan attempts to bring a rigid structure of rules to her lessons.

"She is someone who is absolutely in love with rules, and they make her feel secure," Christie said. "The minute that people start bending the rules or trampling on the rules, that's when the internal inferno that is Jan Stevens starts operating."

Flux Gourmet depicts Jan's instructions to one class at the Sonic Catering Institute. Through her teaching, the film explores the contradictions of her character.

"I was delighted by this very visually flamboyant woman who was very self-constructed and very invested in her own presentation," Christie said. "She presents herself very fully, but she is also in love with formality, and it leads to a very complicated self-expression."

Much of Jan's expression comes from the wardrobe she wears, for which costume designer Giles Deacon helped Strickland and Christie develop the attire.

Christie said Jan's clothes represent her contradictions via "the lightness of the organza skirts and the tightness of the jackets and the expanding cloud-like softness of the skirts."

Many of Jan's outfits are specifically black and white. Sometimes she wears a black skirt with a white blouse; other times, a black blazer over a white dress.

"This idea of things being literally black and white, of being one thing or another, of having that very distinct personality felt like an absolute expression of who the character was," Christie said.

In her first major role, Christie joined the cast of Game of Thrones in its second season as Brienne of Tarth. She said she was excited to hear the news that HBO is developing a Jon Snow series for Kit Harington.

"I really love the idea of that series," Christie said. "It feels exciting to me."

HBO has not asked Christie to reprise her role of Brienne. Until the company does, Christie said she is happy to continue to explore new roles like Flux Gourmet.

"I love to move forward," Christie said. "I love to play very different sorts of characters. But, I will always love Brienne and who knows?"

Next, Christie will play Lucifer in Netflix's The Sandman series, based on Neil Gaiman's comic book. She said she based her Lucifer on Gaiman's comics, and appreciated his dream-like take on mythology.

"To enter an abstract world, but to play a character as the archetypal character of Lucifer, was a huge gift," Christie said. "I really wanted to capture the spirit of that character."