The Winx Saga has rapidly become the latest adolescent drama phenomenon on Netflix. Most viewers are flocking to it because of its beautiful portrayal of feminine friendships however not everything about filming the series has been fun and games. Hannah van der Westhuizen, who plays Stella, has confessed that to portray the personality, she needed to tap into a hurtful minute from her past.
Her character doesn’t instantly bond with the remainder of the group and is constant with her mean comments, as she is channeling her hurtful past.
“It kind of felt like an investigation into those men and women who were not so kind for me and being like,’ What was happening under the surface together?’
The actress also talked about the emotional moments her character undergone in the series and how it reminded her of her life.
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“I found the scenes involving Sky (played by Danny Griffin) and Stella quite emotional since I think it’s so horrible once you enjoy, glancing at anything, just to try and keep yourself steady in life,” she continued.
“I think we have all been through those points where you are like,’ I just want to feel secure, even though this is bad for me in the long run.’ I don’t believe she actually wants to be with Sky.
“I think you sort of draw things and you go, ‘Gosh, I did so so far if I was younger, and I truly don’t wish to make the very same decisions,'” revealed Hannah.
She added: “It really will take you back to all those times. I think really we all went through it, those massive psychological travels, and it kind of brought us closer together in this way.”
But, Hannah didn’t think the psychological element of this series was really that important: “These things that happen as a love triangle or dating somebody’s brother or whatever, are the only kind of hurdles that the girls can overcome to contact the principal sort of course, which I guess is their relationships as well as their friendships.
Speaking of her iconic character, Hannah doesn’t feel as though she can take whole credit for her portrayal.
“I mean, I would love to say that it was all my invention, but I think it would be profoundly unjust,” she commented.
“It was [series creator] Brian [Young]’s. This edition of Stella was Brian’s brainchild and he sort of let me run with this.”
She continued: “I think for us it was about taking the original Stella who’s this character so filled with love and attention but understands how to throw a good bit of color and kind of be like how do we get her on a journey towards bringing down some barriers and also dealing with how difficult it’s to be 17?’
“However, I truly hope that she gets it since I think we’ve begun to see like moments where her love and her feelings for her friends, which are usually so inside her that she can’t control them, sort of come out and I really want that to almost overflow and to truly have the ability to revel in and actually caring about people profoundly,” she shared.
After season one, audiences abandoned Bloom (Abigail Cowen), Stella, Aisha (Precious Mustapha), Musa (Elisha Applebaum), and Terra (Eliot Salt) since they return to Alfea College to find Rosalind (Lesley Thorp) had taken over as headmistress.
