Danai Gurira: For Dominique to be out there now is thrilling. We’re both children of immigrants and, though our journeys are different [Thorne’s family is from Trinidad; Gurira’s is from Zimbabwe], we have that similarity when your parents come from another place and you’re used to a dual cultural existence. There’s something courageous in her; she’s not going to walk into a space unprepared. She’s wise for her years and grounded. There was a tender day on set [for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” filmed after Chadwick Boseman, the franchise’s original star, died in 2020] when we connected deeply. You never expect grief; it just hits when it wants. We had to lean on each other, and Dominique understood what we were dealing with.
When I was in grad school [for acting, at N.Y.U.], I was distraught about how terribly African women were portrayed in the West, if they ever were. Putting out stories that countered that — whether through acting in my first play [“In the Continuum,” 2005, co-written with Nikkole Salter] or watching others in my subsequent plays [including “Eclipsed” on Broadway in 2016] — felt like what I was meant to do. The joy for me is to see Black women from around the world getting our stories told: Letitia [Wright, another “Black Panther” actor] is Guyanese British, and she had to learn a ton of Shona when she was the lead in my play at the Young Vic [“The Convert,” 2018-19, in London]. To have her doing our accents and intonations beautifully was like seeing the diaspora embracing itself.
Dominique Thorne: The first time I met Danai was for rehearsals. There seemed to be an inside joke between [Wright and the director Ryan Coogler] that they were ready for Danai whenever she was, the expectation being that she came with comments, questions and critiques about the character [Okoye, a warrior], about the language, about the scene. They were correct: Her whole script was covered with annotations. I remember thinking, “That’s what an actor’s job is.”
With actors like Danai and [their “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” co-star] Angela Bassett, now you can see a Black woman being a superhero or a warrior — a Black woman being absolutely anything. It’s almost a requirement of the work I’m doing, to honor and learn from what was done before me: That’s the blueprint. My being able to play a superhero is just the new floor.
Interviews have been edited and condensed.
Set designer: Chelsea Maruskin. Gurira: Stylist: Thomas Carter Phillips. Hair: Khane Kutzwell. Makeup: Nick Barose. Thorne: Hair: Ikeyia Powell. Makeup: Jessica Smalls
