Despite the high-flying adventure, futuristic tech, and super-powered conflicts at the heart of the Avengers franchise, Marvel has worked pretty hard to keep its series grounded in some version of our own reality: all its fantasy, tech billionaires, and shadowy government operations have a ring of truth to them. So perhaps it shouldn’t be all that shocking that when it came to crafting his character, T’Challa, for Captain America: Civil War, actor Chadwick Boseman took inspiration from history. Boseman spoke with Vanity Fair to promote Civil War’s Blu-ray release and touched on those historical inspirations, what he really thinks of his costume, and what to expect from Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Black Panther film.

T’Challa is the leader of a fictional African nation, Wakanda. But Boseman didn’t let the fantasy of that location deter him. Building on the accent he learned for Message from the King (which just had its TIFF debut) while shooting in South Africa, Boseman worked with Marvel dialect coach Sarah Shepherd to create something that was rooted in Africa but unique to the fictional Wakanda. “We listened to [Jomo] Kenyatta, listened to a lot of [Nelson] Mandela, young Mandela. But I didn’t want to copy them, either,” Boseman says. “I wanted to make sure that I took some things from them.”

Boseman says he was concerned Marvel fans wouldn’t understand his line readings if his accent was too thick, and even considered abandoning any attempt at an “authentic” African dialect. “At one point, I thought that he wouldn’t have an African accent. But I felt like that would be wrong, because Wakanda has never been conquered. If he had a British accent or a French accent or anything other than it clearly being African, that would convey something that is not true to what Wakanda is supposed to be.”

Courtesy of Marvel

Boseman still had one more challenge standing between him and being understood by the audience: that full mask. (It’s a valid concern: just ask a post-Bane Tom Hardy.) Thanks to voice-over work and C.G.I. (any time you see Boseman in the full suit, you’re probably looking at a special effect), T’Challa came through loud and clear. But Boseman nevertheless had his reservations about the suit, which is a little more extreme than some of the other Avengers looks. Asked what he thought of the costume at first, the actor paused, laughed, and let out a protracted, “I meeeeeann.”