Rebecca Hanssen: “I just studied and worked two jobs so I could afford to go to London and try and become an actor"

If you’ve been anxiously following the now separated Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri as they navigate their way through the war-torn Continent, you’ll know exactly who Rebecca Hanssen is.

If that sounds like gibberish, though, I’d better introduce you to the Irish-Italian-Norwegian-Scottish actor – no prizes for guessing which part of this multinational mix is the most important! – who plays Queen Meve in The Witcher, the sword ‘n’ sorcery epic which has been enthralling fantasy fans since 2019.

Following the somewhat cool Witcherati response to season 3, this year’s instalment was seen as a spectacular return to form and perfectly cues up 2026’s fifth and final series.

“My mum is Italian-Irish – her best friend is currently writing a book about Italian, Scottish and Irish heritage all mixing, especially during the war; it’s fascinating!” Rebecca explains when I ask her about her roots. “Mum was actually born in Prestwick in Scotland – hence my accent – but there are lots of Bruens and O’Malleys in her family.”

Before returning to the Witcher universe, Rebecca froze her socks off shooting the 2024 RTÉ thriller, Blackshore, in Co. Tipperary.

“My first boyfriend was also from Tipperary, so I seem to have some sort of weird affinity with the place!” she laughs. “I was with him for three years and was back and forth constantly.

“As for Blackshore, yes it was freezing but the costume department were phenomenal at constantly having hot water bottles on the go. Mercifully, I was in this baggy green jumper for pretty much the whole thing, and hot water bottles can very easily slide up there. I was fine!”

Was it a fun show to do?

“Oh my god, it was great!” the 31-year-old enthuses. “Whenever it’s a really heart-wrenching, sorrowful story with lots of tears and crying, you seem to have the best time with the crew. Auditioning for it, I expected to be asked to do an Irish accent but Dathaí Keane, the phenomenal director, said ‘Just use your own.’ So that’s why there’s a lone Glaswegian voice among all the Irish ones!”

Most of the actors we talk to have learned their trades at places like Bow Street Academy, RADA or the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, but not Hanssen who’s gone the DIY route with her career.

“I started university when I was seventeen but was so conscientious that I didn’t have the mad nights out in King Tut’s or the Barrowlands that everyone else in Glasgow had,” she rues. “I just studied and worked two jobs so I could afford to go to London and try and become an actor. This had been my plan since I was about ten and watched behind-the-scenes footage from the Peter Pan live action film again, again and again. London felt a million miles away but I knew I had to get there because, back then, it was where everything happened.”

Rebecca’s plan didn’t include a place to stay, a means of supporting herself or a list of contacts to hit up.

“I knew no one,” she confirms. “I had no connections in London, no family, no friends. I just packed a large suitcase and jumped on a train, which was very naïve of me but without that naivety I wouldn’t have done it.

“Some friends of friends from Glasgow who I’d never met before were like, ‘You can stay with us for maybe a week.’ It was all very hand to mouth, but ten years later I’m still here in London!”

With zero formal training, how did Hanssen manage to get her acting break?

“By being that really annoying person on social media,” she laughs. “My brain works in spreadsheets and bullet points, so I made a list of every single casting director and agent in London, followed them on Twitter and ended up with a colour coordinated spreadsheet of who was interactive online. Armed with this, I spent at least two hours every night going through all of their tweets and liking or commenting on them. I now realise that made me come across like a crazy stalker, but eventually I got a message from an agent I’d been interacting with saying, ‘Do you want to come in for a meeting?’”

Hanssen’s Queen Meve of Lyria and Rivia character made her Witcher bow when it returned for its second season in 2019.

“Sophie Cullen, the Witcher casting director, had given me my TV break in 2016 in Dixie, which was this adorable CBeebies show set in a high school with mysteries and lots of vlogging to camera,” Rebecca resumes. “It was her first solo project too, after which she went off and became one of the biggest casting directors in the world. Sophie, who’d continued to bring me in for stuff, asked me to audition for The Witcher. I immediately looked up Queen Meve and thought, ‘Oh, forties, white blonde hair and green eyes; I’m never going to get it!’ So, I did just two takes of the scene for my tape and thought, ‘That’s it, I’ve done everything I can. I’ll send it off but this part really isn’t mine.’ And then I got a call saying, ‘They loved it!’”

Rebecca Hanssen as Queen Meve in the Witcher.

It’s fair to say that Netflix throws considerably more money at its shows than CBeebies does. What was it like filming something as gargantuan as The Witcher?

“My first day when Meve was introduced was in the Lake District,” Rebecca recalls. “We were doing night shoots in this beautiful ruined abbey with these massive fire pillars and loads of supporting actors. The great Shaun Dooley (King Foltest of Temeria) was sat beside me and I thought, ‘What am I doing here?!’

“The attention to detail on these sets is astounding. The costumes are just incredible. The talent the hair and makeup teams have is phenomenal. You’re in this regalia, which totally immerses you in the world they’ve painstakingly created. There’s so much else going on that you don’t even notice the cameras. It’s such a transformative experience.”

Was Rebecca worried about how she’d be received by Witcher fans who are so personally invested in the show?

“Being quite a different casting type to how Meve is portrayed in the game, Thronebreaker, and the book, Baptism Of Fire, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be the image of her that people have in their heads,” she admits. “At the same time, I felt I’d brought her essence to my performance – the joy of fictional characters being that they are open to interpretation. Thus far I haven’t had any messages saying, ‘You’re rubbish, they shouldn’t have cast you!’ which is nice.”

While a lot of fantasy shows are populated by stereotypical damsels in distress, Queen Meve and The Witcher’s other main female characters kick serious ass.

“They really do which is why I think it’s so popular,” Hanssen nods. “There aren’t goodies and baddies – everyone’s very complex and in it for their own reasons. They make mistakes and the female characters hold their own against the men. In fact, they’re often leading the charge.”

While absent from series 3, Meve features in some of the new run’s most pivotal scenes.

“I jumped for joy in January 2024 when I got the call saying, ‘We’d love you to return,’” Rebecca reveals. “I was like, ‘Amazing but I’m currently pregnant. My baby’s due in April, when are you filming?’ They went, ‘Fantastic, we’re not shooting till June! And would you be able to horse ride by September?’ Apart from maybe one or two lessons, I’d never ridden a horse before but said, ‘Yeah, of course!’”

Did she flick through the scripts and go, “Oh, Battle for the Bridge, that’s a nice meaty scene I’m in!”

“I only got the scripts for my episodes, which was good because I love the show and didn’t want to know everything else that happened!” Rebecca laughs. “The Battle for the Bridge is quite a key moment in Thronebreaker and Baptism Of Fire, so I’m delighted they decided to give it the big dramatic treatment in the show as well.”

Like the rest of us, Rebecca had to get used to Liam Hemsworth replacing Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia.

“He did an incredible job of picking up that mantle,” she enthuses. “Liam clearly loves the universe and wanted to make the transition from Henry’s Geralt to his as seamless as possible. At the same time, he’s also made the role his own.”

Joining Geralt on his latest escapades is Emiel Regis, a mysterious barber-surgeon played with considerable glee by Laurence Fishburne.

“He is phenomenal in this,” Rebecca notes. “I could watch him all day. When we were filming the scenes, I had to compartmentalise a bit and say to myself, ‘Laurence Fishburne’s sat on that rock over there, no big deal.’ But it was a very big deal!”

Most of Rebecca’s scenes this time were shot in Wales, which proved to be unexpectedly inhospitable.

“I was there for a week in September and it was the most glorious week weather wise,” she says. “When you see that scene with us on the hilltop, the sun really was beating down. The only issue was that the wasps were out in full force and I was covered in blood glycerine, so I was a little bit of a feast.”

While plot reveals are, of course, strictly verboten, Rebecca is able to tell me that, “We wrapped season 5 a few weeks ago. In the grand scheme of things, I dip my toe into this but for Anya (Chalotra), Freya (Allan) and Joey (Batey), who’ve been on it since day one, there was real sadness at finishing up. It’s been such a massive part of their lives.”

In addition to her work in front of the cameras, Rebecca is massively in demand as a voice actor.

“Among other roles, I played Alfira in Baldur’s Gate 3, which won Game of the Year in 2024 and has sold something like fifteen million copies,” she concludes. “It was motion capture so I was able to explore the physicality of the character, which you rarely get to do in voice. It was a four-year project and absolutely magical to be a part of.”

• The first four seasons of The Witcher are on Netflix now.