Set Visit Interview: Brie Larson Talks Captain Marvel

December 4, 2018

In July 2018 the heavily anticipated Marvel film ‘Captain Marvel’ was on the tail end of filming in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, one of the many on-location settings for the movie, The film stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, an air force pilot who acquires superhuman powers after an accidental alien encounter. The story takes place in the 90s as Danvers strives to make the world a better place while coming to terms with the powers within her.’

From directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, ‘Captain Marvel’ is filled with a roster of A-list talents including Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Rune Temte, Algenis Perez Soto, Mckenna Grace, with Annette Bening, with Clark Gregg, and Jude Law. During filming Blackfilm.com got the opportunity to sit down and speak with a few members of the star studded cast and discuss their experience being apart of the colossal project. Read below for our convo with star Brie Larson about her large undertaking for her role and what she’s learned from it.

So, how does it feel to be the worldbreaker?

Brie Larson: Yeah. I’m really strong. It feels good. I was saying the other day that because everything in this movie, every stunt for example, if I punch someone they go flying across the room. It’s not just like they get hit in the face. Even now, in my day to day life, I jokingly thought I, I was acting like I was mad. I was going to go lift up a table and realized I’m not strong enough to lift up a table because here on set I am strong enough to lift up a table and then fly across the room. So everything’s been quite exaggerated in my world for the last six months. It’ll be interesting going back to being my normal strength self.

Earlier the producers said you’re doing pretty much 90% of your stunts and all camera work. How is that for you allowing so much of yourself to be a part of this physical world?

Brie Larson: A lot of that came from ignorance. I thought that when you signed on for a movie like this you have to do your own stunts. I’m an introvert with asthma so I was like, “I’ve got to get my shit together and be able to keep up with this movie.” It wasn’t until we completed my first fight sequence where I did all of it that they were like, “Oh yeah, we just wanted to tell you that nobody does this. Nobody trains with the stunt team for three months before a movie to learn how to do all this. It just doesn’t happen.”

For me it’s like, if she’s the strongest character in this Marvel universe, if she can move planets I should be able to push a car. It makes the story feel more complete to me that I can talk about what it’s actually like to feel strong in my body as a self-identifying woman. It’s different than if you’re just like, “Oh yeah, I was painted in.” I do feel strong and I had to work really hard for it. I trained for nine months. It consumed my whole world and it was no joke. It really changed me more mentally, I think, than physically. I’m really proud of myself for doing it but I also had really good teachers. It’s not like I was in a room alone with a mirror and taught myself how to do everything.

Walter Garcia’s our fight coordinator. He personally trained me for three months along with Rene Moneymaker and Joanna Bennett who are my stunt doubles. Jason Walsh was my actual trainer. So it took a lot of people to get to where what you see on screen. Was there something that you wanted to do but they were like, “No, no, no, no. You can’t do that one.” Anything that involved contact they won’t let me do, but then by the end of the movie, so I actually got to do it last Saturday. That was the first time they let me do contact because it’s special skills to know how to fall or how to fall back when they’re pulling you on a wire really fast. Anytime you see a foot go into my stomach or I’m flung up against a wall, towards the beginning they wouldn’t let me do it. Then by the end I was able to do it which felt like I had really accomplished something. I got my Girl Scout badge, stunt team Girl Scout badge.

How much help was Sam [Jackson]? He talked about how you guys worked together before so obviously there was already this relationship. Did you lean on him​?

Brie Larson: I lean on him constantly. Yeah. I lean on him on my day to day life constantly. He is my family. He’s like one of my teachers. He’s like a guide for me and always has been and has been someone along the way, at this very pivotal time in my life and it’s continued all the way through until now. He has been able to help uplift and that’s something that I’m learning to identify much quicker, the people in your life that all they want to do is help you be your biggest self possible. They keep forcing you to expand and expand and expand versus the people that are, “Can you be a little less? Could you shave off these parts of yourself?” He wants expansion and that means being dynamic and it’s a very special thing to be able to play and work and exist with other people that allow you to be fully yourself at all times.

How was it going up in the fighter jet? We heard that you were hell bent on getting up in there doing all the things yourself. And I think we were like, “I wouldn’t do that.” What was that like?

Brie Larson: I will say that I was terrified of flying before that. I didn’t tell anybody that because she flies and I wasn’t going tell anybody I was afraid to fly. I don’t fly. I’m scared of flying. For me it was a way of overcoming that fear. I found for myself usually the things that I’m afraid of it’s ’cause I keep them too far away. After I get closer to it you realize it’s not so big of a deal. It’s not so scary. So getting that time, to have that intimate time of learning how a plane works and then actually being up in the air and experiencing a dog fight, experiencing all the things that they have to do and also how resilient the plane is. We had pretty bad turbulence on the way back.

We were running out of gas and everything to me was making me freak out. I was like, “I’m not gonna make it.” I remember the plane shaking a bunch and I really don’t turbulence. I was like, “Oh my gosh. I knew I wasn’t going to survive this.” Over the radio Cossie, my pilot, was like, “Oh we’ve hit turbulence” and a woman over the radio was like, “Oh, how would you describe it.” She said, “Moderate.” I was like, “Oh. So planes can take even more than this?” I’m scared when there’s the slightest little bump in a huge 757. I’m crazy. It really helped me overcome that fear and also have so much respect for the air force and our pilots. They’re just amazing people, really dedicated and hard working and super smart and fearless and funny and definitely, definitely heroes.

It sounds like you really pushed yourself for your movie and you learned so much. Have you been able to sum up what you’ve learned about yourself from making this film?

Brie Larson: My fiance was talking to me about this the other day. He was saying, “Every job you take is so hard. Why?” I was like “Because I want to face myself. I want to get to that point where you’re in the deep end and you don’t know and you’re running off of instinct and you meet yourself and you learn something new and you find power that you didn’t know you had. There was a lot of things that I learned but similar to what this film was about I feel like I really came into my power on this film in a way that I hadn’t felt before.

I had a lot of friends on this movie say to me, “You’re a lot stronger than you know.” For the last six months I’ve been like, “What? I know that I’m strong. I know what I can do. I’m not questioning my strength any longer.” Recently I had this moment, I went, “Oh my god I am stronger than I know.” And I thought that I was really strong so I’m even stronger than I thought. That’s really mind blowing. So learning how to own your power in an uncomplicated way and value yourself, value your time and value what you’re bringing and truly getting it.

You can read it in a billion books. You can hear it in every song. You can watch it in movies but until you actually feel it in you it’s like a pivotal shift I’m not sure if you can turn away from afterwards. I will say that Sam has been a huge part of that and was giving me sad eye about it yesterday because it was like, “And what did I tell you?” And it was like, “Okay. You were right. I am stronger than I know.” He saw it in me before I did.

What’s your biggest strength as a woman?

Brie Larson: My biggest strength as a woman. Probably my compassion. I care a lot about other people. I care more about other people than I do about myself. It’s the thing that gets me in hot water a lot.

It’s the thing that makes me really outspoken and talk about things that some people don’t like that I want to talk about. It makes me work really hard and it also makes me wear myself out because I will go to the end of the earth for people that I love and I love pretty much every person on earth, aside from a few. It’s not an easy place to be but I don’t know how to not be that. I’ve tried. It just comes out. I can’t help it.

Are you shocked by how little compassion there is in the world?

Brie Larson: Yeah, I don’t understand it because I’ve just been this way my whole life. It wasn’t something that I had to learn how to do. I’ve just always been more interested in other people and what they’re going through than I have been about myself. It’s a confusing one because I don’t know how, I don’t know if it’s something that can be taught. I hope it is because it seems like we need more of it. It seems like it maybe can only be taken in by those who don’t understand it by viewing it from the outside, like seeing somebody else do it.

I did, for Black Panther, I did a thing where I got people on Twitter buy people who couldn’t afford the movie ticket. And there was one person on there who wrote to me afterwards and said, “I’ve been struggling with depression for a really long time and I bought two movie tickets for someone and that’s the first time I’ve felt good in a really long time and I think I’ll do this again.” It really kind of shattered me. I thought, “Oh this is healing. This is healing on so many levels that this can help people kind of get outside of themselves and realize that reaching out and connecting with other people is like, that’s life. That’s the juicy stuff.

This is the first origin story we’ve seen in a little while. How does it feel to be introducing a new character to this worldwide audience that already is familiar with so many of the heroes?

Brie Larson: I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest. If I think about it I don’t think I’d do a good job. I think I’d be too aware of it and wouldn’t do what I feel is right. It gets too complicated if you start to think about the outside and what the perception is or how it’s supposed to fit in. I just am doing what I feel is radical for myself and things that I haven’t seen on screen before and the rest will kind of just be what it is. I feel pretty confident that it’s not my job to explain what my art is or decide what it’s supposed to mean to people. That’s up to everybody else. I just want the experience. I just like being on set and making the thing and then after that it’s not mine anymore.

You’ve played so many special roles in the past but this role is about to be so important on a global scale and you’re about to be thrust in a role model position. How are you preparing yourself for that?

Brie Larson: I’m not. I think if I go out trying to be a role model I shouldn’t be anybody’s role model. That’s a liar. That’s not real. All of my role models were people that were unapologetically themselves and that meant that they were complex. That meant that they made mistakes sometimes, but that’s okay. So in order to keep my sanity I just have to say, “I’m just here really to just make art. I’m not here to be anything for anybody. I can hardly take care of myself. I certainly can’t help anybody else.” If I inspire someone and they want to pay attention and follow along they can, but if they don’t, they can bounce. It’s fine.

Can you talk a little bit about the dynamic between you and Maria Rambeau in the film?

Brie Larson: Well, she’s my best friend in the way that she’s like my sister, she’s my family and so is her daughter. It’s a part of this movie that I think is really special and profound because it’s the love story of the movie, is the love story between two women, two best friends, a love that can be lost and that can be found again. Especially because I travel so much with work it’s something that happens to me all the time. You’re out of touch with someone for a while and then come come back, it’s right back to where it was. That type of love which is a very powerful kind, that is the thing that you would take on an army for is what’s depicted in this movie and I’m super proud of it. LaShana is really amazing and very easy to love.

Earlier you talked about staying true to what you believe in and speaking your mind kind of in an unapologetic way. A lot of actresses came before you. You’re standing on their shoulders in the sense of the road that they paved. Do you ever feel a sense of responsibility to play a character that is going to continue to move that needle forward for women and have you ever turned down a role that you felt wasn’t a fair representation of where women are today?

Brie Larson: Yeah, for women, it’s like 99% is turning down roles that aren’t good representations of women. I have felt strongly about that since before I was technically allowed to have a say in that. I’ve just been someone that was like I would rather live off the dollar menu than have like all the money in the world and be making things that don’t represent the world that I live in. It just doesn’t feel right. I want to make my life meaningful and I want to make the world a better place. I want to feel like every second of my day is doing that and that’s part of my act of service is making movies that are meaningful, that are breaking new ground, that do make us see ourselves in the world.

Did you go back to the comic book to kind of get an idea of who she was or was it you were you more from the script?

Brie Larson: No, I read the … I had it, I think I had like two years between when I agreed to do this movie and when we actually started so I had a lot of time to read all of the comics. I think that the script and the comics, like who she is at the core, they’re very similar. I don’t find there to be a ton of difference, but that’s just my interpretation. It’s a combo of everything, really. Plus it’s all of the training that I did and it’s all of the work that the team from the comic’s put in along with everyone who worked on the script plus my entire lifetime of being a woman that has made her what she is.

Disney is leading the way when it comes to making sure that their films are super inclusive and that they’re kind of casting from all over the world. What’s your experience been like when working with the studio at Disney and how does it differentiate from other studios when it comes to that aspect?

Brie Larson: So, I haven’t done a ton of studio movies so I don’t have a ton of experience with it. For example, when was this? It was like September or October, end of last year was when it really crystallized for me that I wanted to work on an inclusion rider and make sure that my press was completely inclusive moving forward. So of course the first ask had to be to Disney because that was going to be my biggest round of upcoming press and it wasn’t even like, there was zero pushback. It wasn’t even a question. It was like, “100%, We’re doing that with Wrinkle in Time and we think it’s awesome and it’s the right thing to do and how do you want to do this?”

I was really pleased that that happened and that happened before this was a public conversation and they weren’t looking for a press release. It was just something that they were doing. That feels really good to me and it makes me more excited about doing press. This movie will be … I’ll have to do press all over the world so it’ll be nice to hear … It’s interesting when you start promoting films that go all over the world. You start to notice that each place, they create their own narrative and that you have very different conversations. So it makes the work feel much more dynamic, more interesting because it’s very fresh. Every conversation feels brand new.

Marvel Studios’ CAPTAIN MARVEL opens in U.S. theaters on March 8, 2019.