Serena and Venus Williams have been inspiring tennis generations for over two decades but hard to say they ever imagined they would inspire the character of a wizard in the Harry Potter universe.
Jessica Williams, who plays the role of Eulalie ‘Lally’ Hicks, reveals she modeled her character’s wand work after the Williams sisters.
“I’m so excited about my character,” Jessica Williams told Collider. “I think she’s really strong and really capable. She’s really good at defensive magic and she has some really cool, badass sequences in this movie that I’m so excited for everyone to see. I modeled a lot of her wand work after Serena and Venus Williams. I like that she does this really cool, strong magic like she really means it. Eulalie is really heart-driven and I think she’s really good at seeing at the heart of people, and I think Dumbledore recruits her because he knows that about her. And I think she’s somebody you can always depend on to do what’s good and what’s right.”
Jessica Williams inspired by the Williams sisters
“I’d always known that my character was supposed to be throughout the rest of the Fantastic Beasts films … I play this character named Eulalie Hicks. She is a charms professor at Ilvermorny, which is the North American wizarding school. And I knew that in Crimes of Grindelwald she makes a brief appearance, but then in 3, 4 and 5, she’s quite formidable and becomes a huge part of the story.”
Meanwhile, neither Serena or Venus have played this year.
Serena hasn’t played since Wimbledon but she indicated in a recent Instagram video with Aaron Rodgers that she plans to play at Wimbledon.
Last week, Serena’s long-term coach Patrick Mouratoglou started working full time with Simona Halep.
Mouratoglou spoke with Serena Williams before accepting Halep’s offer.