[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of Fate: The Winx Saga.]
In Season 2 of the Netflix original series Fate: The Winx Saga, the fairies at Alfea are trying to find their footing while they’re being pushed to their limits under the harsh authority of Headmistress Rosalind (Miranda Richardson). As Bloom (Abigail Cowen) and her Suitemates – Princess Stella (Hannah Van Der Westhuysen), Aisha (Precious Mustapha), Musa (Elisha Applebaum), Terra (Eliot Salt) and Flora (Paulina Chávez) – become suspicious about who’s behind a very dangerous threat, they realize that they must learn to strengthen and unite their magic, in order to save the Otherworld.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Sadie Soverall (who plays Beatrix, a mean girl that really just yearns for a place to belong) talked about how different it felt to shoot Season 2, Beatrix’s journey of growth, playing someone who masks insecurities with acts of self-preservation, the friendship between Beatrix and Stella, the trio of Beatrix and Riven (Freddie Thorp) and Dane (Theo Graham), working with the scrapers, why she’s so proud of who Beatrix has become, and the life-altering decision she makes in the finale.
Collider: The first season of a show, you’re figuring out a character, what the relationship dynamics are, and how all of it fits together. How different did it feel to go into Season 2, having done a season?
SADIE SOVERALL: It was really lovely, actually. As you said, it’s all about establishing relationships and characters in Season 1. This season, we definitely got to see a lot more of a deeper internal side to a lot of the characters, and especially Beatrix, which was lovely. I’d say there’s a lot more action and there’s a lot more adventure. Because we don’t need to establish settings in the same way that we did in Season 1, it does feel like there’s a lot more going on, plot-wise.
When you went into the first season, how did you view Beatrix? Did you see her differently in the beginning than you see her now, after two seasons?
SOVERALL: Definitely. In Season 1, I actually really admired her, from day one, because she’s so different to myself, and she makes some very reckless decisions that I personally wouldn’t do. But I feel like it’s the actor’s job to justify those and to know exactly why they’re doing that and to fight for your character, from their point of view in the world. Especially this season, I respect her a lot more. I have a lot of love for her. When fans watch it, they’ll see why I really do see her as a hero. She does do a lot of things for her own self-interest, which I actually really respect, and I personally need to do that a bit more in my life. But I think she does deviate from that a bit this season, which you’ll see, and I’m very proud of her for that.
Do you also see her as something of a mean girl, or is she just covering for her own insecurities?
SOVERALL: Especially at first, when I was looking at her, I definitely drew on some of the more difficult times I had in school and some of the more difficult people that I’ve encountered, with the way she presents herself, outwardly. She is very cold outwardly, and she does say some quite callous, hurtful things, but I think it’s very much a mask and a cover for her insecurities and how she’s really feeling. She doesn’t want anyone to know that, behind it all, she’s actually feeling a lot more than probably everyone else is feeling.
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Do you think if the Winx Suite embraced her that would she want to be real friends with them? Would she even know how to be real friends with someone?
SOVERALL: I was thinking that she would love it, in the end. That is definitely something that she really has been dreaming of. But I think it would very much like, “How do I navigate this friendship?,” because she’s never really had that in her life.
That’s why it’s so interesting to see a friendship develop between her and Stella. They feel like they could not be more different, but there’s also something they have in common, with people not really seeing them for who they really are. What do you think it is about them that really works, as friends?
SOVERALL: I definitely saw them as, Beatrix is night and Stella is day. They are so different, as you said, but they both do share a similar element in their trauma. They both have been through something very dark, and they share that. What is also nice is that me and Hannah [van der Westhuysen], who played Stella, had a scene in the courtyard, and we were both saying to each other that it’s like they’re queens in different elements of their life. They’re holding court, and they won’t show anyone their true faces, except for each other. It’s their trauma, which they know that only the other can tell that they have.
The trio of Beatrix and Riven and Dane is so interesting because Beatrix and Riven really pretend not to care about anyone, even though that’s clearly not true. With Beatrix, in particular, it seems like she feels lonely and she just wants someone to care about her. Do you feel like that’s true, when it comes to her? Do you think she just wants someone to genuinely care about her?
SOVERALL: I definitely think that’s true. I think there’s a version of her that she would never share or reveal to anyone, that just wants a hug from her parents who she lost, all those years ago. There’s definitely that vulnerable side. I think they all use each other, in a way, as a distraction and a comfort. That definitely comes into that relationship. But yeah, I’d say she really does just want someone to care about her.
What were those scenes with that trio like to do? Were there conversations about figuring out the choreography of intimate scenes that involve three people, and not just two people? Is it very different when you’re trying to figure out the choreography of three people involved?
SOVERALL: Oh, definitely. We worked with a wonderful intimacy coordinator. You always do for these scenes, and they do just get broken down into choreography. It was definitely something where it was needed to figure out how we were gonna do it with three people. But it was all really fun. In the end, it was just really simply choreographed.
Are there ever times that you guys just had a laugh about the whole thing because it is so silly to be in a moment like that?
SOVERALL: Oh, definitely, yeah. You’re just like, “This is my job?” It’s so bizarre. When you are going into work and you have to do these things, you’re just like, “Okay.” But you do just laugh. That’s how you get through it. We’re all friends, and it does just turn into a funny experience.
Beatrix makes the decision to blow up that relationship for her own gain. How do you think she felt about that? Do you think she felt bad about doing that, or is it just self-preservation takes over, no matter what it is?
SOVERALL: She does definitely have a part of her that feels bad, but it is very much self-preservation and tunnel vision. It’s about, “If this is gonna be the best path for me, then this is what I have to do. I don’t wanna do it, but I’m gonna do it.” When she does blow everything up and make that decision, it’s very hard for her. It’s something where I feel like she’s done it before. She did it in Season 1. But this time especially, the stakes are a lot higher, in terms of her relationships and everything. It feels like a quite difficult decision for her to have had to make.
What was it like to shoot the scene when Beatrix is outside and alone at night, and she gets attacked by the scraper? Was there something there attacking you? Did you have to entirely imagine it?
SOVERALL: Oh, my gosh, that day was actually really fun. We had these puppets of the worms, or scrapers, that we had to fight against. Some of them, we just had to imagine they were there and fighting. It was definitely a challenge for the imagination, but one I really enjoyed. It was really fun.
With this show, it all looks really cool in the finished product, but it must be so surreal and silly in the moment, when you have nothing there.
SOVERALL: Yeah, I can see how it seems like that. What was good, especially in Season 1, was that we had a good two-week rehearsal, where we worked with our powers and how we were gonna present them and how it was gonna feel when we did. I feel like that got rid of all of my insecurity and nervousness and apprehension about doing that. I’ve sat with 50 or 60 people watching. I also had little purple lights at the end of my fingers, and sometimes I had a strobe light to bounce against my face, which really helped. It’s all a challenge for the imagination, and I really enjoyed that. I loved it.
Beatrix loses her magic.
SOVERALL: Yeah.
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It’s so interesting to see how hard that is for her to deal with, balanced with Musa wanting it to happen and choosing it for herself. What do you think it is about Beatrix that really makes her feel like she’s lost her power in losing her magic? There are so many other strengths to her, but with her, it seems like losing the one that’s visible is most important.
SOVERALL: Her magic is a massive currency. It’s where she really holds a lot of her value. With her growing up under Andreas, that’s definitely something that I brought into the backstory. It’s where her physical strength comes from. With Andreas, that is a massive currency for him, as well. It’s very important, and you see that in his relationship with Sky. A lot of her self-worth comes from that. It’s also her way that she can physically fight off everyone, and fight off battles, and fight off demons. So, it was really hard for her and there was a sense of, “How on earth am I gonna protect myself? How am I gonna have any self-worth?”
It feels like she doesn’t even know who she is without magic.
SOVERALL: Very much so. I really like the fact that I got to go a lot more into that more vulnerable side of her. You can see that she’s a human being who has feelings and is really going through something, and I felt for her a lot, as well. I love her and I felt really bad for her. It was really lovely, doing those scenes where everyone was really supportive in all of those moments.
Beatrix is so interesting because she desperately wants family friends, and a place where she belongs and fits in, but she also just can’t stop betraying everyone.
SOVERALL: Yeah.
Is she loyal to anyone other than herself, or is she always working an angle that she thinks she’ll just be able to work her way out of, in the end?
SOVERALL: In the end, I think she is loyal, and she does hold loyalties. She definitely does with Andreas. She has a soft spot for him. But for someone to penetrate that circle and to be that important to her, it takes a lot. It takes a lot of trust from her, and that’s trust that she doesn’t really give to barely anyone. I definitely think, towards the ending, she does do that. She does work against her own self-preservation, which I’m very proud of her for. She really is a hero, in the end. But for most people, it’s that feeling of, “I’m gonna do what’s best for me.”
She’s so interesting to watch because she makes a decision, but she’s also always thinking about the next step of how she can get out of the last decision that she made.
SOVERALL: Yeah, definitely. She’s very intelligent. She’s always 10 decisions ahead. The way she thinks is definitely a bit more advanced than me. That was something that I really wanted to get into because she was so highly intelligent. But I really admire the fact that she’s always thinking and always finding a way out of things.
That’s why it’s so sad that she’s the one that took the step she did, and she saves the world, only to die for it. How do you think she would feel about the sacrifice that she made? What was your reaction to reading that script, and what was it like to experience that moment?
SOVERALL: Oh, gosh, I always get emotional when I think about it. I’m so sorry.
No, that’s totally understandable.
SOVERALL: (Creator) Brian [Young] told me, and I was just like, “Oh, my gosh! Wow! Crazy!” I’m just incredibly proud of her. She’s a hero, in the end. I think she’d be very proud of herself that she did the right thing. I really feel for her because she did the right thing, in the end, and I think she went out on a high. Every time I think about it, it makes me upset because she is good. She really is, in my opinion. It was really heartbreaking.
Is this really officially the end for her? Have you already started plotting out how you can convince them to make sure one of her long-lost sisters just happens to look exactly like her?
SOVERALL: I really don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. I don’t know anything.
Before everything happened, she found out she has these sisters. What do you think that meant to her, and what do you think she would’ve wanted to have happened with that?
SOVERALL: I think that meant so much to her. When I read that in the script, I was just like, “Oh, my gosh!” For her, it means so much because it’s this family that she has been searching for, her whole life. She’s never had a real family, and this is a real family. I think it meant the world to her. And in terms of what she would have wanted to do next, I think she definitely would have wanted to go and find them, and to go after her family.
Fate: The Winx Saga is available to stream at Netflix.
