SEOUL—Brie Larson had a crash course on becoming the most powerful superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Larson had already won an Academy Award for Best Actress for 2015’s “Room” when she signed on to play Captain Marvel, but she couldn’t talk about it for a year.
She experienced being Captain Marvel in reverse, as she shot her scenes for “Avengers: Endgame” before she shot “Captain Marvel.”
The first thing she had to do was join the Marvel Studios’ 10th anniversary “class photo” shoot in Atlanta in October 2017.
“It was a really crazy time to kind of show up and meet everybody. And it was really wonderful because I got to meet everyone at once and shake hands and go, ‘I’m the new kid. Do you have advice for me?’”
She had to figure out what it was like to be Captain Marvel. “It was figuring out where I fit into all this because this universe is so vast. Figuring out who Carol (Danvers) was, where she’s at in this part of this journey and how she fits into this larger world, that was the challenge.”
The film turned the heroine into an icon and Larson into a superstar. The outspoken Larson proved unafraid to use her fame to push for change—and unafraid to take on the trolls. “I made myself a promise a long time ago that I don’t pay attention to either of it,” she said. “I don’t pay attention to the positive. I don’t pay attention to the negative. I just do what’s right in my heart. All that stuff is just outside noise. I know what it is. I know who I am. So I just stay true to that.”
Larson’s participation in “Endgame” has really excited fans who want to see how she would do against Thanos.
Suddenly becoming a superhero after doing indie films didn’t faze her either. “I love it. I like feeling off-balance. I feel like when you make giant leaps like that they become these sink-or-swim moments and allow you to really explore different aspects of yourself. I’m not someone who has a giant plan. I can’t see the future. None of it really makes sense. I just do what feels right, and making that movie felt right to do at that time. It was really fun, and that’s really what I was looking for at that time.”
Larson’s star is in the ascendency and she’s already directed her first feature film, “Unicorn Store,” for Netflix. She was included in Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Captain Marvel’s journey is literally and figuratively one of finding her powerful place in a much larger universe. “Carol taught me so much,” Larson told fans. “The movie taught me the value of representation.” —RUEL S. DE VERA
