‘Once Upon A Time’ Star Gives The Unexpected Scoop On Dark Emma

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Once Upon a Time.

Once Upon a Time may be offering one of the most-anticipated season premieres of the year with fans eager for any tidbit they can learn about Dark Emma and the journey Jennifer Morrison has taken to help create that Dark Emma persona. Once Upon a Time fans are cautioned not to expect to see the dark version of Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) as soon as the new season picks up, however, because Emma is still the heroine of Once Upon a Time and it’s in her nature to fight the darkness.

“Before she’s surrendered to it and given into it, the good part of her is fighting with this darkness that is consuming her and it’s a constant struggle that’s really angsty and intense,” Once Upon a Time‘s Morrison says.

Jennifer reveals that much of her character’s evolution into Dark Emma Swan has been created by her own research into classic fairy tales, but also it has taken some reflection into Morrison’s own Once Upon a Time character.

“In the surrender to the actual darkness, not necessarily the journey and the fight to try to stay light, she’s pretty different. I started by looking at all of her opposites, looking at everything that was opposite of what Emma stood for and opposite of what we’ve seen of her and trying to look at what that would mean.”

Jennifer warns Once Upon a Time fans not to expect a brooding, all-business version of Emma Swan. After all, where would be the fun in that? Instead, Morrison expects fans to enjoy the way in which Dark Emma Swan embraces the new opportunities presented by her sudden lack of a moral compass.

“Emotionally, it’s interesting because there’s something really fun and free about Emma in the darkness, where she’s just free of the gravity of what other people think and the gravity of worrying about saving people,” the actress says. “There’s a lightness, in a sense, in her darkness, because she doesn’t have to do the right thing and she doesn’t have to try to be the stronger, better person all the time. There’s a little bit of freedom in that that is really fun.”

There are many ways evil can manifest itself, but Morrison says she’s worked with the Once Upon a Time creative team to create a darkness in Emma Swan that embraces an egomaniacal persona.

“Instead of looking at this as, ‘I’m trying to be mean, dark and evil,’ it’s about the absoluteness of her freedom from responsibility in the darkest way you can imagine. She’s completely selfish and she’s completely free of her responsibility. She is completely indulgent in her sensuality and her confidence and her demand for things in life. We’re building her from that place. It’s coming from a guttural, raw place in her that is almost like sociopathic in a way, someone just completely free of conscience.”

As far as preparing for the role, Jennifer says that her research and discussions with the Once Upon a Time creative team have only taken her so far and that she’s had to look elsewhere for inspiration. Morrison found much of her Dark Emma persona coming through as she slipped into the Dark Emma outfits, designed for the fifth season of Once Upon a Time.

“Obviously, I’ve had the luxury of jumping in and out of jeans and t-shirts for the last four years, so it is a whole different thing to have something a little bit more extravagant and to be painted white and all that stuff.”

The Once Upon a Time season premiere will air on September 27 on ABC.

[Featured image courtesy of ABC/Once Upon a Time]