Evey Hammond

Natalie Portman as Evey Hammond

In the film adaptation, Evey is played by Natalie Portman where she is working as a runner for the British Television Network when the film begins.

Evey is not introduced as a would-be teenage prostitute, although she is supposedly on her way to a sexual encounter with Gordon Deitrich (here, a popular talk show host at the network) when she is caught and nearly raped by Fingermen during the city curfew, being subsequently rescued by V. Evey's trust of V develops quicker in the novel, but a more romantic angle is developed in the film. The background of her family is changed. In the film, she has an older brother who is killed by a virus that was secretly developed from the experiments on V and other inmates at Larkhill. Her parents become political activists and participate in anti-government protests. The Hammonds are arrested by the Fingermen and die in Belmarsh prison (Evey's mother starves to death during a hunger strike, while her father is shot by British soldiers during an assault on the prison). Evey's last memory of her mother is of watching her head being covered by a black bag as she is dragged away. Suddenly orphaned, Evey is sent to a child reclamation camp, "re-educated" and released back into society.

In the comic book series, V abandons Evey after he kills Lilliman; in the film, she runs away from V after attempting to betray him to Lilliman, then goes to Deitrich for protection. Evey does form a relationship with Deitrich, but the two do not become lovers, as he is homosexual. (Deitrich's arranged liaisons with female co-workers are a ruse to deflect suspicions about his sexual orientation, since homosexuality is illegal.) Soon after, however Dietrich is mercilessly beaten by Party Leader Peter Creedy as he raids Deitrich's home and captures him, official revenge for satirising the Chancellor on television. V gets to Evey before Creedy does and captures her himself, though she is led to believe she's in the hands of the Fingermen. The ensuing sequences involving the torture Evey undergoes, the inspiration she finds in Valerie's letters, with her character's transformation, are all taken from the graphic novel.

Unlike in the graphic novel, Evey does not personally take up the mantle of V after his death, but she does grant him his final wish and give him a Viking funeral in a train car filled with explosives. Unlike the graphic novel, London's chief of police, Inspector Eric Finch, discovers her. Also, unlike the comic book series, Creedy and his men have already mortally wounded V, thus he is dead by the time Finch finds them. Finch, who secretly sympathizes with V's cause, lets her pull the lever triggering the explosives. Evey and Finch then watch as Parliament is destroyed by V's funeral car, ending Norsefire's oppressive reign over England.

During the scene where Eric Finch tells his partner Dominic Stone about his visit to Larkhill - and his feelings about the chain of events of everything that had happened and everything that was going to happen - a very short shot of Evey Hammond can be seen. She wears a turquoise dress while tending to a bouquet of Scarlet Carsons and then turns away: the reflection in a mirror behind her sharpens, revealing either Eric Finch or Dominic Stone sipping a drink while in a chair. This seems to suggest the two end up in a relationship after the film concludes as, unlike the shots of other events, this does not occur in the movie itself.

Evey is portrayed in the film by Natalie Portman. Portman first met director James McTeigue while filming Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones: he was working as assistant director. She allegedly beat several other notable actresses to get the part. It was announced in early January 2005 that Portman was cast in the film.[1] During production, she took voice coaching lessons from Barbara Berkery to perfect an English accent, working with her every day for a month before filming began.[2] Her head was shaved in a single take.