Now, in the comics, she has so many powers — intelligence, resistance to magic, healing, clairvoyance, etc. We know you’re on-screen for a short period of time, but of that time, how much did you enjoy playing with those powers?
Because this is mostly the origin story, we are in the last minutes, a reveal at the end of the film, and we didn’t have a tremendous amount of screen time. Everyone gets something different. Mary’s powers are exactly like Captain Marvel — speed, strength, flight, bullet immunity — all of that. Mary has all of them. I would say the one that we’re going to see most though is strength from her. Like she can kick some butt and she might wear a fancy skirt and some nice fancy boots, but those boots are made for kicking butt.
It’s also indicative of her character and her gaining this confidence, letting loose and being free to be who she is and have fun with it. When Mary is out there, she’s laughing and having a blast doing it. She’s like, “You want some more. Come on, bring it on!”
It’s a fun character to play for a superhero because lots of times they have to be quite serious. But Mary is not. She is this 17-year-old girl having a blast realizing that she can lift the world on her shoulders!
It’s inspiring to see this rise right now with empowering female superheroes. How does it feel to be a part of that?
I do consider myself to be a feminist and I try in my personal life and use my platform in acting to really connect with young women. I have been doing that for years now, being able to reach out to younger women. Whether it’s advice or telling them to grab the reins of this era — the future is female. Just seeing that white sea in Congress during the State of the Union, I remember watching and seeing that sea of white and I just felt Mary Marvel. They get to do that their way and I get to do it my way. How lucky am I?
Honestly, very lucky. Every girl has some form of a hero they look up to — whether they’re in a comic book, a TV show. I mean there are little girls right now who just want to be Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I literally just posted on my Instagram of RBG in a superhero uniform. I posted it and shared this quote with it: “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Finally, we like to ask this of any woman we chat with for Culturess. Who is a woman, either fictional or nonfictional, that you looked up to growing up and why?
To be honest, my entire childhood, up until my teens I wanted to be Nadia Comaneci. She was a Romanian gymnast and the first gymnast in the world to score a perfect 10. She made history. I was a gymnast growing up, and so to me, what she did, and like how talented this woman was, was ridiculous and to me she was a superhero. She could do things that looked like magic. It looked like it was impossible to do.
And she was such a young girl. She was such a tiny little package, but she was a powerhouse. And I remember thinking I just want to be her, she’s so strong and she can do things that amaze people and inspire people. She inspired her entire country.
And even as I got older, her life was still inspiring to me because she got asylum here in the US. That took a lot of strength because she had to leave behind everything she knew and come to America to get freedom. And so her life, it wasn’t just gymnastics, her life, in its entirety has been a huge inspiration for me. I’m obsessed with Nadia Comaneci.
That’s amazing. See, it doesn’t have to be a hero with a cape — heroes come in all forms.
And then, of course, my mother. My mother is my wonder woman. I don’t know how she did it. She has super powers. Anytime I want to complain about anything, I think about the circumstances my mother was in and everything that she sacrificed for me.
Reporting by Sharareh Drury