The release of the first episode of Ms Marvel has skyrocketed the popularity of the titular character Iman Vellani and has brought the MCU series loads of appreciation for South-Asian representation and having a Muslim character lead their show. However, Vellani, a Pakistani-Canadian actress, who made her debut in the showbiz with this mini-series says she initially thought her casting call was spam. During a press conference of the show which was attended by News18, the 19-year-old actress shared how her casting as Kamala Khan happened in the ‘brownest’ way possible.
When she was asked to share the incident, she started by saying, “This is the brownest way this could happen,” and continued to tell us the story. “February 2020, I get the WhatsApp forward. I thought it was a scam. I don’t know what casting calls look like but they are not white pages that say, ‘Ms Marvel, Disney+ and headshot and resume here.'”
She continued that the casting call turned out to be real and she sent in a very academic resume and the photo she had of herself and got a call back from them. However, the actress revealed that she was scared of failure. “I was making excuses for myself out of fear of failure. And at, like, 3:00 a.m. the night it was due, I sent in my self-tape. I was like, my 10-year-old self is gonna hate me if I don’t even try. And two days later I get a call,” she said.
“They’re like, do you have a lawyer? We wanna fly you to LA and I was like, I have a math test, but okay. And next thing, I’m in LA with my dad,” she continued. Soon after, the pandemic hit and they sent her an email confirming that she got the part.
Talking about what makes the character Ms Marvel stand out among the rest of the young superheroes in MCU, Iman shared, “Ms Marvel always understood fan culture on such a cellular level, and it just really elevated the storytelling in a really unique way. She’s a 16-year-old kid with super powers, fine, we’ve seen that before. But she’s also a fan of every other hero within the MCU canon. That fascination and excitement are so shared with real-life Marvel fans, so that’s why we relate to her. She reacts how we would when she gets powers.”
“And culture and religion were never the main things of her personality, it was just some part of her life. We didn’t want to make the show about a Pakistani Muslim, it was about this Avengers-loving, fanfic writing dork, which just so happens to be a Pakistani Muslim. I think we balanced it quite well,” Iman concluded.
Ms Marvel is the 7th mini-series of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s fourth phase. Starring Iman Vellani, Matt Lintz, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, and Saagar Shaikh among others, the series is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
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