A Field Guide to Jessica Henwick

At twenty-one years old, Jessica Yu Li Henwick will be appearing in two of the largest fan-loved, geek franchises in the world--Game of Thrones and Star Wars.  How fucking cool is that?  I mean, with the Star Wars thing she is basically set for life.  She did announce that she will not be baring any of her sexy self on Game of Thrones but, well, she is young.  Give her time, people.  Her future is bright and full of half-or-not-at-all-clothed possibilities.  

Henwick hails from England and is on Singaporean-Chinese descent.  She studied acting at a couple of schools and went on to land a lead role on a British fantasy television show broadcast for a year in 2010 called Spirit Warriors.  She played a girl named Bo--the leader of the group- who was on a school field trip ended up whisked away into some ancient Chinese spirit world where the kids were all miraculously transformed into "spirit warriors".  The kids have to use their new skills to find these spirit piece things and keep them from the evil warlord Li, so that the universe will be saved from evil and darkness forever.  Henwick had a water dragon named Shen helping her along the quest and it is all pretty engaging, meant for kids fun.  Henwick was solid on the show, for sure.  

From there, she appeared as voice talent on the BBC radio comedy "North by Northhamptonshire" as the character Helen.  It was a ten episode radio play that was well-received by critics and received a Sony Radio Award for its excellence.  From there, Henwick appeared on a ton of other British television series including a five episode run on the show Silk about London barristers (that's "lawyers" here in the U.S.) and a couple episodes of Inspector Lewis, a show about a cop in Oxford dealing with upper class crimes.

This year, she will debut on Game of Thrones as Nymeria Sand, one of Oberyn Martell’s eight illegitimate daughters, who are known collectively as the “Sand Snakes.” The character is a truly pitiless, ruthless killer bent on revenge for her father’s death and to play her, Henwick did six months of bullwhip training.  How fucking hot is that?  

“Audiences are sick of seeing the same old, same old. They don’t want the traditional fantasy trope any more of the young farm boy who finds out it is prophesied that he will take over the kingdom. Game of Thrones is not like that. The great thing about this show is that it takes a cliché and flips it on its head, ” Henwick told The Independent about the show.  

She is most definitely right and her character on the show is very, very important in the plot's development of things in the book so it will be really interesting to see what the HBO show does with her very strong character.  

Henwick is well aware of her geek cred and on her Twitter page, she asks that all of her tweets be read in a "Batman voice."  Here is a small video of her talking about being one of the Sand Snakes.  

Hot young chicks who are great with weapons and are fierce lovers and fighters?  Uh, yes, please!  I advise everyone to get their own subscription to HBO right the heck now.  Henwick is a fan of the bullwhip training she has done and will show off her strength to any reporter who asks her about it.  She owns a kangaroo skin whip with a bronze handle that she uses to show how cool she is.  Back to Henwick's character--Sand was taught how to use the bullwhip by her late mother who was a noblewoman who died in a battle.  The Sand Snakes have a huge beef with the Lannisters so prepare to see them go up against Jaime Lannister and his one-handed fierceness this season.

Oh, yeah, and there is that movie that is coming out that she stars that comes out in December.

Yep, Henwick has a starring role in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" but there are absolutely no details out there whatsoever about what role she will play in the feature at present.  Her stunt training and whip training for Game of Thrones, I am thinking, were partially for whatever she will be doing in the new Star Wars film.  She did martial arts on Spirit Walkers way back in the day too so my guess is that she will be some kind of Jedi warrior alongside the rest of the cast which includes Star Wars veterans Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher, and newcomers Adam Driver, John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Max Von Sydow, and Oscar Isaac.  Of course, she could also be a Sith and the lightsaber play really works with martial arts stuff.

Whether she plays good or evil, keeping Henwick on your radar this year is a fabulous idea.