Krysten Ritter Jessica Jones

Almost immediately following its debut, the first season of ‘Jessica Jones’ was hailed as not only one of the best things (if not the best thing) to come out of Marvel’s television arm, and as something of a feminist landmark. In addition to a storyline that addressed everything from addiction and recovery to rape culture, the show is also populated with complex, flawed, and unflinchingly honest female characters. Of course, it wasn’t just the audience that noticed this. The cast and crew knew exactly what sort of show they were making

And perhaps no one was as acutely aware of the importance of not only ‘Jessica Jones’ the show but of Jessica Jones the character as Krysten Ritter. Ritter, of course, plays the titular private eye in what has proven to be a masterstroke of casting. Speaking during a Q&A session at the recent Comicpalooza convention, Ritter was asked about her experience pursuing the role, and in response detailed her visceral reaction upon realizing the uniqueness and importance of the role, explaining that she fought for the part:

“It’s so often that a role – and we’re seeing things improve, we’re seeing things more complicated, complex, well-rounded female characters now, I think – but for a while it was like, “This role’s one thing.” Like “This is the funny one,” or “This is the straight one,” or “This is the voice of reason.” Kind of like you would serve one purpose. I felt like Jessica was this role that does everything and she’s so well rounded and we see all the different sides of her, like us. We all have so many different sides, so I wanted to be able to play that. So this was a role that I read and I was just dying to get and went out and fought for it and celebrated pretty big. It was a big one, you know? I’m grateful to have this part that challenges me and allows me to stretch and grow and really sink my teeth in.”

‘Jessica Jones’ stars Krysten Ritter, Rachael Taylor, Eka Darville, and Carrie-Anne Moss. Both seasons are now streaming on Netflix.