Oh no, it’s not pressure for me, it’s just funny! I think it’s just funny. I literally have friends that were like “Michaela, I’m telling people that you’re Storm, we know that you’re not, but we’re just doing it!” They just want to sow disinformation. I was telling people: “watch, the Black Panther is going to take off that mask and it’s going to be Michaela.” That’s so funny! People keep telling them I’m lying on the internet, but that’s what they were doing – what can I say?! Who would you say is the strongest character in the Marvel universe? Hmm, right now – her name is Dominique Thorne and she’s incredible. Ahh, Iron Heart!
Yes, she’s incredible, she’s in this movie and has incredible talent. Nervous of course, I’m excited, I’m feeling everything, but not exactly pressure. We honour the memory and the legacy of Chadwick Boseman. We did it with a lot of love and we have this fantastic cast and the marvellous Ryan Coogler, so when you have all these elements together there’s no pressure. It’s just joy and love, and nothing wrong can come from love and joy. You’re brand new, but if you had to pick any other Marvel character to be, who would you choose? Oh that’s a really good question, I don’t know! I always loved Iron Man and Black Widow, but I don’t think I can be Black Widow… I think you can do it, you can pull it off! Oh yeah, perfect! Martin: I’m sure it will be critiqued, everything is critiqued, and rightly so. If you’re out doing something in the public eye people are not all going to love and people are going to pick you up on stuff. To be honest, I always feel like even if you know the place you’re coming from, some people are going to be determined to pick you up on stuff, those people will never go away. Some people are determined not to have a nice life, genuinely determined to not to enjoy shit. So in the answer to your question people are always going to critique it, but I just want to enjoy the films. I want to see the films that I do and think I’m proud to be a part of that, and I’m very proud to be a part of this. I think it would take a very very pig-headed critic to think that this film is in some way trying to mess around with people, or trying to be disrespectful. We know that’s not true, we know that’s not what anyone is trying to do. So I think, like with all this stuff, the more the merrier! There’s a whole load of new people here and it’s bonkers! When Ryan Coogler was describing it in the Zoom call I had with him, we were going through all the beats of the film and I was like, “what? Wow that’s going to happen!” It was very exciting. I mean, I try to look at the positive things in it – people are going to be offended by what they want to be offended by, and it will never go away. But I challenge viewers to ask themselves if they’re being genuinely open about it. I think you’d have a hard time if they are.
