BRIE LARSON TAKES FLIGHT

THE OSCAR-WINNING ACTRESS SUITS UP AS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE’S MOST POWERFUL SUPERHERO. HERE, LARSON DETAILS HOW SHE PREPARED FOR THE DEMANDING ROLE (HINT: SHE CAN PROBABLY DEADLIFT YOU)

Higher. Further. Faster. More. It’s the perfectionist mantra that drives Carol Danvers, and it’s the mindset Brie Larson, 29, embraced as she prepared to don the spectacular blue, red and gold costume of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most formidable character. Larson, who cemented her own powerhouse status with a towering Oscar-winning performance in the harrowing drama Room, pushed herself to the physical and emotional limit to play Carol, a woman who is resourceful, complex, complicated, funny and always striving to be better.

“I left it all out on the field,” she says of her performance. “I couldn’t have given more of myself to this project.” Her tremendous commitment to the role certainly impressed those around her. “She approached it with real dedication,” says co-star Jude Law. “She’s very steely. She brought a kind of sass to it. She’s smart and didn’t take it lightly.”

Larson tells WHO what it took to play the noble warrior hero – to embody Carol’s strength, her stamina and her sense of humour – and the satisfaction she derived from a day on set punching aliens.

What aspects of this character most excited you?

The idea that this was a flawed superhero was really what was appealing to me. Someone who’s using her flaws to better humanity, I think, is a very, very powerful message and something that felt like it was worth sharing internationally.

Did you have any trepidation in terms of anchoring the first female-led Marvel film?

I didn’t really feel that sort of pressure. I was a little ignorant to the vastness of the fan base for this world. What I did have trepidation about was the amount of public persona that would come with a role like this. I’m an introvert and I really like my privacy. I think my best work comes from my ability to be messy and in the world and be a human being. The idea that [this] could change or that [this] was something I’ll have to be more clever about or work with is something that I wanted to take the time to think about before I [dived] into it.

Did you find yourself taking a crash course in comic-book history to prepare?

I read comic books when I was younger, so I knew a bit of the world, but I was definitely a novice. I still am. I probably wouldn’t do that well if I was on [US quiz show] Jeopardy! with Marvel Universe questions. I had such a great time researching it. The hard part was that I couldn’t tell anyone. I think I had a year where I kept it to myself. That felt weird, but it was OK. I spent a lot of time reading as much as I could. Then at a certain point you realise that we’re making a movie, and it’s still an interpretation of the material. It’s me playing to my strengths, bringing what I believe are some of the interesting aspects of Carol to put on screen.

What about the physical demands? You trained for nine months!

I did. I know it’s a little excessive, but I still didn’t feel like I was ready after nine months. It was important to me that as we’re talking about this woman who is the strongest character in the Marvel Universe that I could back it up by saying I’m really strong. I can do a 180kg hip thrust. I can deadlift 100kg. It’s not just playing strength on screen – it’s actually embodying it.

Why was it important for Carol to retain her sense of humour from the comics?

These bigger movies are so wild that if you take them too seriously, they lack something. They have to be in on the joke. It allows the audience to have a way in. A lot of my work has been in trying to open up the audience to something they haven’t seen before, and a lot of that is through release. You either get tears or you have laughter. I think this movie has the opportunity for both forms of release, and that’s supercool.

What does the 1990s setting lend to the film?

For me it just felt fun and nostalgic because that’s what I grew up in. So much of film is about reminding you of your childhood or your inner child, and that’s what the ’90s does for me. I can only imagine it will do that for others, too.

You’re playing the most powerful character in the MCU. How did that feel on-set?

It was my favourite part, the stunt work, to be honest. It’s just very expressive and emotive in a way that doesn’t require dialogue. It felt good to feel capable and in my body. It certainly has its challenges, and you feel so exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a new world for me to wade through. Doing a scene, usually you can leave it going, “OK, I did the best I could with what emotions were available to me in that moment.” Whereas doing a fight sequence, there is a right way and a wrong way to punch an alien. It became a fun game for me and a much more tangible realm for me to live in. I could go home and know that I had done a good job.