Brie Larson is using her superpowers for good.
The “Captain Marvel” star told Marie Claire in an interview published last week that she’s using her “privileges and powers” from her prominent role to ensure that the movie’s press tour is not “overwhelmingly” white and male.
“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male,” Larson told Keah Brown, a black journalist who has cerebral palsy.
To ensure that her press tour for the iconic “Captain Marvel” film is different, the actor said she’s decided to make her press days “more inclusive.” Larson started by handpicking Brown to conduct the Marie Claire interview, an offer Brown described as a “game-changing” opportunity.
“After speaking with you, the film critic Valerie Complex and a few other women of color, it sounded like across the board they weren’t getting the same opportunities as others,” Larson told Brown. “When I talked to the facilities that weren’t providing it, they all had different excuses.”
Larson, who won the Best Actress Oscar for 2015’s “Room,” has always been an outspoken advocate for gender equality. It’s no surprise she sees her highly anticipated “Captain Marvel” role as an opportunity to highlight diversity and inclusion both in front of and behind the camera.
“I want to go out of my way to connect the dots,” she continued.
“It just took me using the power that I’ve been given now as Captain Marvel,” Larson added. ”[The role] comes with all these privileges and powers that make me feel uncomfortable because I don’t really need them. … But any uncomfortableness I feel is balanced by the knowledge that it gives me the ability to advocate for myself and others.”