A major character on “Westworld” was actually inspired by this famous painting
The saying goes that life imitates art. But sometimes, it’s art that imitates art. In HBO’s new dystopian show, Westworld, Evan Rachel Wood plays the dynamic and fascinating host Dolores. Dolores, despite being created as a robot to serve the adult playground of Westworld, seems to have a mind of her own.
According to Entertainment Weekly, it turns out the character was actually inspired by an iconic painting by Andrew Wyeth titled “Christina’s World,” which depicts a young woman sprawled in a field, reaching with out longingly toward a farmhouse in the distance.
A photo posted by Naian Gonzalez Norvind (@naianaianaian) on Feb 17, 2016 at 8:22pm PST
Executive producer Jonathan Nolan said there were multiple inspirations for Dolores, but that the subject in “Christina’s World” was particularly moving for the writing team.
“It was a tilt of the head toward all the different stories that inspired us; a classic protagonist who’s on a hero’s journey with a darker twist to it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “She starts in what should be the happy homestead but it’s not and she goes out looking ultimately for herself.”
Turns out the real story behind the painting has shades of Dolores, as The Huffington Post notes. The woman in the artwork is Anna Christina Olson. She is suffering from a degenerative muscular disorder that may be polio on a farm in Maine and is trying to rise above her suffering.
“The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless,” Wyeth said regarding the painting, according to the Museum of Modern Art.
Sound familiar?
Both Anna Christina Olson and Dolores represent woman striving for something bigger than themselves, and better than the lives they currently lead.
As Nolan said of Dolores, “She’s a formidable person in her own right, even if she’s missing the bigger picture around her.”
Time will only tell if Dolores figures out the bigger picture, but we have a feeling she may not be beholden to Westworld forever.
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