VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Anjana Vasan On Women’s Roles In ‘Wicked Little Letters’

Actress Anjana Vasan spoke about her role in the new film Wicked Little Letters.

Wicked Little Letters, set in a 1920s English seaside town, is a mystery-comedy that follows two neighboring characters: the deeply conservative local Edith Swan (played by Olivia Colman), and the lively Irish immigrant Rose Gooding (portrayed by Jessie Buckley). The tranquil town is thrown into disarray when its residents are bombarded with letters filled with cruel and unintentionally hilarious profanities. The outspoken Rose is blamed for the scandalous correspondence and a national trial results from the uproar caused by the anonymous letters. However, as the town’s women take matters into their own hands, led by the determined Police Officer Gladys Moss (played by Vasan), they begin to question Rose’s culpability, and find a deeper mystery beneath the surface.

Vasan’s character faces challenges in her job as a policewoman in a male-dominated field.

“I think what’s interesting, being the first female police offer in Sussex–which she was at the time–is going into it and not having any frame of reference in terms of other women in that position or even like women in the workplace, in public-facing positions was so new, that she’s navigating this and experiencing it for the first time and really trying to figure it out herself, and not knowing what other women might have experienced in that position,” Vasan told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “It was just so fascinating being in her shoes.”

Vasan continued, “What I loved is the real tension between her and what she thinks the job is and what the job actually is. And the system and the men around her don’t allow her to do the right thing easily, and I think she’s realizing that she needs a bit of spirit of disobedience to be able to like, do her job, and when she’s out of the uniform that’s when you see her fly, and I love that she goes to the community and other women to help her. She kind of grows into her own by the end.”

Vasan further explained the depth of the film and its take on gender roles.

“It was underneath all the comedy,” she said. “It’s not just about ‘who did it’ in this movie it’s about, ‘well why would someone do this?’ And I think once we start asking that question when we put that frame of questioning on the story, then all the politics came out and it’s about the patriarchy, it’s about the system and, you know, women and subjugation and oppression, but it’s not too heavy-handed in any of those themes which is why I think the comedy can fly.”

Wicked Little Letters is now in theaters in New York and Los Angeles and will be opening nationally soon.