GABRIELLE NADIG on Producing HEDDA

By Rebecca Green

Gabrielle Nadig has built her producing career by fostering long-term creative partnerships while maintaining a clear-eyed approach to budgets and sustainability. From her early days at Killer Films, through producing LITTLE WOODS for director Nia DaCosta, Gabrielle has navigated the independent film landscape with intention. Her latest film, HEDDA, is now streaming on Amazon, and has earned multiple award nominations, including two Independent Spirit Awards and a Golden Globe.

Gabrielle discusses with Dear Producer the decade-long journey to make HEDDA and how she’s invested in partnerships that elevated her career. She also opens up about running a film financing company while still producing and what keeps her hopeful in an industry increasingly driven by mergers and quarterly reports.

At what point did you start working on HEDDA?

I produced LITTLE WOODS in 2017, Nia DaCosta’s debut feature, and we actually started talking about it back at that time. It’s based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, but I wasn’t familiar with the story. Nia pitched it to me and I thought it sounded intriguing. After LITTLE WOODS premiered, Nia was inspired to finally put pen to paper and write the thing she had been thinking about for so long, which was HEDDA. She wrote it in like a week in December 2017. But then LITTLE WOODS was so well received out of the Tribeca Film Festival and Nia got quickly sucked up into writing and directing CANDYMAN and then went on to direct THE MARVELS. She was a very busy woman, so HEDDA was on the backburner for awhile, but I knew the right time would come for us. Eventually, when Nia was in the UK in the second year of THE MARVELS, we had a big conversation about what we wanted to do together next, and we wanted it to be HEDDA. Her team at CAA brought it to Plan B and we were suddenly off and running.

I was not familiar with the play either. Is it in the public domain?

Yes, it’s from the 1890s, so a public-domain piece. It’s been reworked as a movie and revived as a play many times. It’s one of those plays that has been performed somewhere in the world for the last 150 years. At its core, it’s about a woman struggling against being put in a cage, which is timeless. That struggle, unfortunately, has never gone away. Actresses gravitate towards these kinds of complicated characters and Ibsen writes complicated women so well. This felt, and still feels, incredibly relevant.

I read in an interview with Nia that the character of Eileen was originally a male role in the play. Was switching that role to a woman an idea Nia had from the beginning?

If you’re not familiar with the original play, it’s a love triangle with Hedda at the center. She’s married to George and there is another man, Eilert, with whom she used to be involved. However, you don’t really get a sense of why Hedda would choose Eilbert over George. Changing Eilert to Eileen made it so much more interesting. Hedda could not be with the Eilert character because she’s a woman. She has to pick a man because that’s the societal norm at the time and it creates a more realistic picture of how Hedda cannot be true to herself in any shape or form and has to adhere to the social restrictions imposed upon her.

I read Nia’s script before I read the play and thought it was so much fun. It’s delicious, sexy and scary. Her writing reads like a sexy thriller. Then I went back and read the play, and I immediately saw how Nia fixed all of the things I would have had a problem with in the original text.

Were you thinking of this as a return to the indie space after Nia had been in the Marvel world or did you see this as a big movie?

It was 2021 when the project was really picking up steam and with both the period aspect and COVID protocols in full swing, it didn’t feel like this could be a low budget film. In my head, I originally thought we could land in the $10 million range. When it became clear that we were going to partner with Orion, it became bigger, just by the nature of it being a studio movie versus an independent film.

Tessa Thompason starred in LITTLE WOODS so you have a long standing relationship with her, when did she become involved in HEDDA?

Nia had written HEDDA with Tessa in mind, it was her role for the taking. But as we were trying to set up the film, Tessa’s profile was really on the rise. The concern was that by the time we would be ready to shoot, she wouldn’t be available. Thankfully, the stars aligned and she was available and wanted to do it and wanted to produce it with us. We were happy to have her.

You also partnered with Plan B as producers. How did that come together and how did you balance having a team of producers?

I love Plan B. I think Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner are incredible at what they do and I am so truly honored to have had the chance to work with them. When they came onboard, Nia and I felt like we had landed the best possible partners. They knew the films I had produced and respected my relationship with Nia. They were really inclusive and it all felt seamless.

We delineated producer responsibility based on each other’s strengths but I was really happy how empowering they were to me. They let me run with the ball but brought incredible ideas and problem solving skills when needed. They are incredibly collaborative and give really thoughtful notes and guidance.

Plan B has a long track record of partnering with the next generation of producers to get these more challenging movies made. I wish more producers at their level would follow suit and use their talent and leverage to support the next class.

I agree and before Plan B did that for me, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones generously did that for me. When Nia moved into the bigger budget space, I was worried I was going to be left behind. I wouldn’t be able to work with her again because of the optics of my indie resume compared to her studio credits. At the time, I called Brian and he helped me get onto a $20 million movie so I could prove I was capable of it. By the time we were doing HEDDA, there would be no question that I could produce at that level because I had already done it. I’m eternally grateful to BKJ for that opportunity.

You and Nia made LITTLE WOODS together, which was in the sub million dollar level and then she jumped to CANDYMAN and then Marvel. What were you doing during these years to maintain your relationship knowing you wanted to work together again?

Nia and I are friends, but more importantly, we’re a professional partnership. We weren’t friends before we worked together. We’re friends through our professional work together and we enjoy collaborating. At this point, I think she’s worked with a lot of other producers, and I’ve worked with a lot of other directors, and we continuously gravitate back towards each other because we know how deep the respect and the trust go.

I’ve watched a few of my producer colleagues go through the experience where they lose their creative collaborator when that person gets sucked into Marvel or whatever other big studio franchise and I didn’t want that to happen. I was proactive and had a frank conversation with Nia about how I had helped launch her career with LITTLE WOODS before anyone knew who she was. I did it because I loved her vision and her talent and wanted to bring it to life for her. I told her I didn’t want to get stuck making million dollar films and would need her to go to bat for me as well if she wanted to continue working with me. She saw my value and wanted to produce HEDDA with me. She made sure I was her producer and now we’re partnered on many other things together.

To your other question about what I was doing in the meantime? If there was a project I thought she would like, I’d bring it to her. Or I’m tracking the books I know she would like. I’m always in the background thinking about her no matter what she’s up to. And I’m a sounding board for her. I’m here for emotional support at all times, whatever she needs. We work on the basis of full trust and respect, and we see the value of working together.

I appreciate you sharing this. There are so many producers who have launched careers and then have been left behind. You kill yourself on the low budget film and then a flashy producer sweeps in with more relationships or money and they get that filmmaker’s next project. It’s heartbreaking.

What you’re describing, working on someone’s debut but then not moving up with them for the next bigger film, that had already happened to me before I worked with Nia and it was hard to take. I had worked with that director for years but I realized it wasn’t a creative partnership and there wasn’t respect for me or the craft of producing there. I chose not to wallow in that experience and was fortunate to work with Nia on LITTLE WOODS right away. With Nia, I saw what a real producer/director collaboration should look like. She understands my value and knows I’m there to help her make the best film possible. And through her, I learned what a great director really looked like.

Going back to what we were talking about with Plan B, I do think it’s also incumbent on us as producers to lift up the next generation. Plan B could have easily said, ‘We’ve got it, we don’t need Gabrielle.’ But like Nia, they also saw your value. This is a very opportunistic industry where the scarcity mindset is strong. People get caught up in that and don’t necessarily take care of each other the way we need to.

I agree with you completely. I now run a film financing company and we get pitched projects all the time. When it’s not a director’s debut film, chances are I know the producer on their first film, so I call that producer up and ask if they’re on the project. And if they’re not, I want to know why. I see it as a red flag.

Has running a financing company changed how you consider potential projects?

I think the reason why I was a good producer in the first place was that I really cared equally about the creative and about the money. I cared about the people who were giving their money to me. I cared about what I had promised them, what I was going to give them, and how I was going to fulfill that promise. Even on HEDDA, with MGM/Amazon, I don’t want to let them down. I really care about the executives there, and I want to show them that we can do what we said we’d do. I don’t want to come in over budget. I want to come in on time and on budget, barring catastrophes like strikes. I need to make sure everyone who said yes to this project financially is getting what they wanted out of it.

On the independent film side and financing, I feel like I’m bringing the same thing. I want to make wonderful things, but in a realistic market. I want to make sure my financier is around for 10+ years to make all these movies. If I am irresponsible or don’t treat the money with respect, it will go away. I feel that way for all of our independent financiers.

When we did LITTLE WOODS, 10 investors contributed very small amounts. Some of them were really professional companies like Tango, but others were just privately wealthy individuals. It’s likely they will not make their money back. I told them all that very directly upfront, which I’m sure they hated. But what I ask them is - what, besides money does success look like for you? Do you want to be at Sundance? Do you want to walk the red carpet? Do you want to meet the actors? Do you want to come to the set? What is the measure of success that’s not just financial? I do that with my partner now. Yes, I want financial success, but I also want to make things we’re proud of. I want to make things that launch people’s careers, and I can balance those things without being irresponsible with money.

You are currently sucked into the awards circus. I feel like every morning there’s a new nominations list and HEDDA is on it. What are your feelings on it all? Is it too much? Is it rewarding?

Listen, I’ve never been a part of a movie that has made it this far. I’m having a blast. I love it. I’m so happy to be included. Especially with HEDDA, which had a direct-to-streaming release, the awards campaign and the buzz around it have made more people see it than would have otherwise. It’s great. I can’t complain about it at all. It’s really wonderful that Amazon is supporting it so much. If it goes straight to streaming, without this awards buzz, who would be seeing it?

We’re talking at the end of 2025 and it’s been a hard year. I’d love to know what your North star is, what keeps you focused on the work?

At the start of my career, I worked at Killer Films during the recession in 2010, right after I graduated college. The bottom had fallen out of everyone’s budgets. Mumblecore was the rage. The RED camera had just come out. Everything was in flux. There was also a strike that had just concluded and it felt like the end of the world in a lot of ways. It’s not dissimilar to now. It always feels like a pendulum swinging and I’m hoping it will swing back the other way.

I do think all the mergers are very concerning, given how few buyers there are as it is. If we slim down even more, the types of movies that are going to get made are going to really lack creativity. They’re all going to be slop. I want films like HEDDA. I don’t think there’s been a movie like HEDDA in a long time. A sumptuous, melodramatic, wild ride. It’s not the type of movie you see every day. As everything mergers, those types of interesting movies will go away.

But I’m hoping with SINNERS, and WEAPONS doing so well, and ANORA last year, that those movies continue to win and continue to show the industry at large that there is a need and a want for these stories. My hope is that my small company will continue to make the movies we want to make, which, by design, are not going to be big superhero movies. They’re going to be small movies with a deeper message. If they don’t make a lot of money, that’s not the goal. But they’ll exist and I’ll find the audience for them, and I think that’s half the battle. How are these studio movies going to have any talent if I don’t discover it for them?