Anastasia Hille's Gertrude has a very motherly instinct which shows during interactions with both Hamlet and Ophelia. During the bedroom scene (Act 3 scene 4), Gertrude shows bewilderment towards Hamlets actions and accusations which quickly turn to guilt as she realizes that her hasty marriage has caused all of this (Pictured left). Another place that Hille's Gertrude exhibits this guilt is during Ophelia's drowning scene (Act 4 scene 7). Gertrude rushes out of the room after Ophelia when she realizes what Ophelia has set out to do. She is unable to save her and laments this for the rest of the play.
Hamlet Directed By Lyndsey Turner (2015)
From Left - Anastasia Hille as Gertrude and Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet.
Reviews
“The women in Hamlet’s life — Ophelia and his mother, Gertrude (Anastasia Hille) — are such whispery, self-effacing presences you expect them to evaporate.”
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"Hille is a beautiful Gertrude: febrile but restrained. She makes her own sense of the detailed description of Ophelia’s drowning. This can be problematic: why didn’t she throw her a lifebelt? In Hille’s mouth the memory becomes a way of recovering a life, and of driving herself mad. She trembles like a silver birch."
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"There’s also a stronger maternal presence in Gertrude (Anastasia Hille), especially in regards to Ophelia (Sian Brooke). When Gertrude discovers that her once future daughter-in-law has given up her passion of photography and destroyed her camera (which feels like a thankful attempt by Turner to give Ophelia some personality), Gertrude realizes Ophelia’s life is in danger and chases after her. It’s one of the play’s most harrowing sequences."
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