Netflix’s The Witcher involves a lot of magic but also physicality, with its main cast going through extensive training in order to perform various action scenes without getting injured – but the actress who plays Yennefer wasn’t counting on hurting her back during scenes that didn’t involve fighting. Based on the book series of the same name by Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher was released on Netflix in December 2019, and was very well received by the audience. Anticipating its success, Netflix renewed the series for a second season even before the first one was out.
The team behind The Witcher decided to approach the story differently, focusing on three characters and their own storylines, set in different places and points in time, but converging towards the end of the season. These characters are the titular witcher, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), an enhanced monster hunter; Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), a powerful sorceress; and Ciri (Freya Allan), the crown princess of Cintra and who is in the process of discovering her own powers. The series made some changes to the source of material, and among the most notable ones was the addition of Yennefer’s backstory, which added more tragedy to her arc.
The Witcher explained that, prior to becoming a sorceress, Yennefer was a woman born with various physical deformities, such as a twisted spine, a hunched back, and a bent jaw. Because of this, Yennefer was abused by her family, with her father blaming her mother and Yennefer’s part-elf nature for everything that was wrong with her. Yennefer thought she would never experience love, but it all changed when her father sold her to Tissaia de Vries and was taken to Aretuza to train to become a sorceress. To get Yennefer’s pre-transformation look, Anya Chalotra had to wear various prosthetics as well as a backpiece, forcing her to maintain a certain posture for hours. Chalotra told Metro that this uncomfortable position actually hurt her back, and had a trapped nerve she had to get massaged out after hours of filming.
While the production team of The Witcher tried to make the experience as comfortable for Chalotra as possible, they “had to make decisions quite fast” and some things couldn’t be changed – but even though she hurt her back in the process, Chalotra said she “was happy in the choices” they made. Yennefer didn’t spend much time in the series with a hunched back, as she went through an extreme transformation after her graduation from Aretuza. Though the procedure made her beautiful, the cost was her fertility, and so the enchanter removed her reproductive organs. Yennefer then spent some time looking for ways to regain her fertility but to no success.
Playing Yennefer of Vengerberg was not going to be an easy task, especially after The Witcher decided to add a proper (and tragic) backstory, but Anya Chalotra managed to overcome all obstacles, including those involving weird backpieces, uncomfortable postures, and back problems that, thankfully, weren’t something that can’t be treated. Unless season 2 of The Witcher decides to add some flashbacks, it’s unlikely she will have to play hunchback Yennefer again, but if she does, hopefully it will be in more comfortable and less painful ways.