A few weeks ago, Geeks of Color had the opportunity to attend the Captain Marvel press conference with some of the talented cast and crew in attendance. Some of the stars who took part in the press conference were:

·         Brie Larson

·         Samuel L. Jackson

·         Jude Law

·         Gemma Chan

·         Lashana Lynch

·         Clark Gregg

·         Anna Boden (Director)

·         Ryan Fleck (Director)

·         Kevin Feige (Producer)

Rotten Tomatoes Editor, Jacqueline Coley moderated the panel and she started things off by asking Kevin Feige why he chose Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck for the job.

FEIGE:  Well, it was… it was… it was more than one meeting. There was a number of meetings.  It’s their body of work.  And it’s their focus on character.  And it’s their focus on… and our belief that they wouldn’t have lost the character, amongst the spectacle and the fun and the effects.  Um.  And really, Anna spoke very eloquently about, ah… Carol Danvers and about that… about that female hero and over the course of developing the movie, and producing the movie, Anna went up in a jet, as did Brie, which was super impressive and I wouldn’t do for a million dollars.

Brie Larson talked about why she loved playing Carol Danvers (a.k.a. Captain Marvel).

LARSON:  There’s a lot to love about her, which is why I was really excited to do this; in particular, the idea of playing a superhero, or a female superhero in particular because my interest is in female complexity; I was a little worried about playing somebody, a superhero that would be perfect — because I don’t feel like that’s realistic, or something aspirational at all.  Um.  In particular, even with my job, like you could just see this beautiful finished product where I look great, maybe… in your opinion. [LAUGHTER] Ah, but you don’t know all the other takes that are on the cutting room floor where sometimes I physically landed on my face doing stunts — and sometimes I just do a bad take.  It’s just how it goes. So getting to play a character where the whole character arc and turn of this is watching her be this major risk taker, which means it’s not always going to work out the best.  And those are the moments, the defining moments of her character, where she doesn’t lay down, she gets back up.  I mean, that’s everything.  That’s for everybody.  There isn’t a person who can’t relate to that, I don’t think.

Larson and Lynch both talked about what it was like to work with one another and their character’s arcs in the story.

LYNCH:  They’re both in the military, so they come from male-dominated environments where they were drawn towards the women anyway.  They would find power in whoever they, you know, find energetic connections to.  Um, so I feel like they just had — I think they had a sarcasm together.  They did a nice thing about how Brie has represented Carol is that she’s just a normal person.  She’s able to be every facet of what a woman represents today — sarcastic, dry, funny — she can kick men down and thrown them into different parts of the universe.  Um, so I feel like Maria embodies that in a very human way.  She’s able to just be a kind, good person.  You know what I mean?

BRIE LARSON:  Yeah.  Well, I think, I think you’re right.  I think what they’ve gone through together, going through military training together, being the only women and then using each other to lean on each other through that type of like support and a recognition of their experience is… is really special.  I mean, of course, I think they would have been friends outside of that experience and — but I think that that’s a really tight-knit bond that they have and they’re family.  I mean, that’s kind of what we’re talking about in this film is — without being too showboating about it, this is the love of the movie; this is the great love.  This is the love lost.  This is the love found again.  This is the reason to continue fighting and to go to the ends of the earth for the person, the thing that you love.

And it’s her best friend and her… her best friend’s daughter.  Which to me is so natural.  I don’t think that there’s at any point — I even, you know, I went and saw the movie with some, some people and it was like an hour later, where they were like, oh — Maria’s the love.  Like, yeah!  So it’s not like… something that we made a big deal about, but it just feels so natural because that love is so strong and I’ll just like, I’m going to brag about Lashawna for a second because I love it — it’s like the movie shifts when she’s onscreen.  Because there’s a level of power that she commands in that, that I was talking with people yesterday and a lot of people were tearing up talking about some of the speeches that you give because they’re like, I felt like she was talking to me.  She was reminding me of myself.  Hello.

MODERATOR/JACQUELINE:   Thank you.  Thank you.  Um.  But you’re back in the MCU.  What was it like being back on set, Marvel feature film, Coulson is back?

When asked about returning to the big screen Clark Gregg had this to say:

GREGG:  It wasn’t a long conversation. You know, they said, hey, do you want to come back?  It’s the ’90s.  Cool soundtrack.  Ryan and Anna.  Little origin buddy stuff with Sam.  And they’re going to give you more hair and make you look younger.  Oh, and Brie Larson is going to be Captain Marvel and I was like, okay, where do I go? And it superseded that in every way.  It was so incredibly fun to do.  And I’ve gotten the thrill of taking my young daughter to a bunch of Marvel movies, but I’m taking a 17-year-old young woman to see Captain Marvel next week and I’ve never been more excited to take her to anything ever. 

Crazy Rich Asians star Gemma Chan talked about playing a blue alien:

GEMMA CHAN:  I… I loved it.  You know, I… I like to change it up and surprise people a bit and it was really fun going from playing Astrid, who is this very warm-hearted, kind, empathetic person to Minn-Erva, who is much, like she’s got a harder edge, she’s… she’s sarcastic, she’s, yeah, she’s a big of a mean girl.  Um.  But I like her.  I like kind of tapping into that… that side of me.  It was fun.  It’s fun to be bad. [LAUGHS]

JACQUELINE:   I like that.  Did you get to do any sniper school?

GEMMA CHAN:  I did.  I had to learn how to you know, crawl with a rifle.  Um.  How to… yeah, I did all the drills.  They were, yeah, there’s an amazing stunt team that Marvel have and they help you look like you know what you’re doing.  [LAUGHTER] Because I really didn’t.  Um.  And hopefully… hopefully pulled off.

Jackson spoke about the differences between this version of Nick Fury and the one in the present:

JACKSON:  Oh, you know, sort of a kinder, gentler, not so cynical world-weary, chip-on-the-shoulder Nick Fury.  Um.  Who hadn’t met anyone from another universe just yet and sort of looking at the crazy lady, trying to figure out why she thinks she’s an alien [LAUGHTER] and what all that means and, ah… it’s kind of… kind of fun to not be the all-knowing, you know, angry, ah… persuader that Nick Fury always is and — and you know, even… even more refreshing to have two eyes, so I don’t have to cover one eye while I was learning [LAUGHTER] my lines.

Captain Marvel hits theaters later this week and you can expect a spoiler-free review, and more coverage from us this Thursday!

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