The Real Reason You Recognize Rose The Hat From Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep had a lot going against it. It was the sequel to The Shining, a masterpiece of a movie and one of the most legendary horror films in existence. What's more, the villain of the piece was Rose the Hat, an inhumanly beautiful woman wearing a silly-looking top hat, which some might consider a step down from the original's complex motifs around the Overlook Hotel and Jack Torrance's (Jack Nicholson) gradual slide to murderous insanity. Nevertheless, the movie persevered. Though it only earned around $72 million during its theatrical run in late 2019, Doctor Sleep has been popular on streaming services lately, and fans are showering it with love.    

As for Rose the Hat, the ominous leader of the True Knot cult turned out to be amazing, as well. There are many ways a character that's essentially a superpowered energy vampire could become a cliché horror monster, but Rebecca Ferguson hit an absolute home run with a performance that made Rose a wonderful, chilling villain that absolutely mesmerized the viewer every time she appeared on screen. Ferguson skillfully infused the character with a terrifying gravitas and made her more than a match for Ewan McGregor's grown-up Danny Torrance. In fact, she was so good in the role that the movie might be over until you realized that she looks awfully familiar. But what is the real reason you recognize Rose the Hat from Doctor Sleep?

Rebecca Ferguson hails from Sweden, and after over a decade in her native country's film and TV industry, she started gravitating toward foreign productions. Her international breakthrough role was Elizabeth Woodville, the titular character in the BBC One miniseries The White Queen. The series was an adaptation of a Philippa Gregory novel depicting the turbulent period called Wars of the Roses, as the Yorks and the Lancasters waged war over England's throne. To drive home just how violent this period was, it served as inspiration for a little-known thing called Game of Thrones. 

Ferguson's Elizabeth was based on a real historical character, who was the highly divisive Queen consort of Edward IV and had ties to both families. In an interview with Collider, she said that she loved the way The White Queen told the fairly well-known story from a female perspective. "We're breaking in a new ground, in a different way," she said. "Three strong women are fighting the same battles, wanting a throne and wanting power because of safety for their children and for their own safety."

The White Queen aired on Starz in the US, and in 2014, Ferguson received a Golden Globe nomination in the category of Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for the role. Talk about a star-making turn!

Yeah, speaking of star-making turns. Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation came out in 2015, and it immediately became clear that the fifth installment showed no signs of the franchise going stale. One massive reason for this was the introduction of Ilsa Faust, the mysterious, sharp-shooting operative played by none other than Rebecca Ferguson. Faust was more than a match to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), and an instant hit with critics and viewers alike. 

Anthony Lane of the New Yorker was absolutely smitten with the character: "Of the many heists and grabs that litter the movie, none is as blatant as the deft, irrepressible manner in which Ferguson, displaying a light smile and a brisk way with a knife, steals the show." Meanwhile, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Ferguson brings a bit of unexpected maturity and substance to the role of the inscrutable Ilsa Faust, an individual who is fully Hunt's equal, and then some." With such raving reviews under her belt, it's no surprise that Ferguson reprised the role in the follow-up, Mission: Impossible — Fallout. It looks like Ilsa Faust has no intention to stop kicking rear, either, seeing as Ferguson has already confirmed that the character will return in the upcoming seventh film in the franchise (via SlashFilm). 

If you want to really throw yourself off balance, do yourself a favor and watch The Greatest Showman immediately after Doctor Sleep. That way, your brain's still processing Rebecca Ferguson as Rose The Hat, when suddenly, she bursts into a song. 

The Greatest Showman was a 2017 musical about the circus magnate P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), and Ferguson's role is opera singer Jenny Lind. Unlike many of Ferguson's seminal works, The Greatest Showman wasn't a huge hit with the critics. In an interview with Ryan Gilbey of the Guardian, Ferguson says that she was initially disappointed when the negative reviews started trickling in, but soon realized that everyone, including her own son, was completely obsessed with the film's soundtrack ... and, it turned out, the movie itself. In the end, the audiences loved The Greatest Showman so much, it made well over $430 million at the global box office. What's more, its soundtrack sat pretty at #1 on both the iTunes charts and the Billboard Top 200 (via Deadline). Unfortunately, the soundtrack doesn't feature much of Ferguson. See, she didn't actually sing her big number, "Never Enough," herself, instead leaving the vocal duties to Loren Allred of The Voice fame.

Strangely for someone who acted in a musical, Ferguson wasn't really a fan of the genre when she went in. "I never liked musicals before," she admits. "I always wanted to slap the actors whenever they started singing. Seeing it from the other side changed me."