Scoring a role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a long time coming for Teyonah Parris. While on Collider Ladies Night, Parris revealed that WandaVision wasn’t the first MCU project she put herself on tape for. In fact, she’s been making tapes for Marvel for roughly a decade now. But perhaps one could say snagging the role of Monica Rambeau was well worth the wait. Not only did Parris wind up playing a character who shines in Marvel’s very first Disney+ series, but Monica also appears to have a mighty bright future in the franchise. On top of that? Pre-WandaVision, Parris was still busy wracking up one impressive credit after the next including Chi-Raq, Survivor’s Remorse and so much more!
We did get the chance to touch on a whole bunch of those non-MCU titles in this edition of Collider Ladies Night but, of course, we had to put a good deal of the spotlight on Parris’ work as Monica in WandaVision, beginning with her audition for the role.
If you know anything about the level of secrecy maintained on MCU projects, it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to hear that Parris didn’t know all that much about who or what she was auditioning for when she first put herself on tape for the show. But it turns out, that mystery carried on for quite a while - until Parris officially locked the role, in fact! Here’s how she put it:
“Part of my process is, once you do an audition, once I do one, it’s done. It is what it is. I have to let it go spiritually and for my mental health, right? So weeks later it came back and my agent was like, Shauna said, ‘Oh, you know that Marvel thing you went in for? It’s looking really good.’ And I was like, ‘Hm, no?’ She’s like, ‘Remember the weird thing?’ I was like, ‘Oh! Okay! Right, okay, tell me more!’ And then she was like, ‘It looks like you got the part.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! What’s the part?’ Still don’t know what the part is. Don’t know the project, don’t know anything. And they were like, ‘Hold on, let me call you back and find out.’ She calls back, she’s like, ‘Uh, the little girl from Captain …’ She didn’t even say it before I said, ‘Don’t tell me it’s Monica Rambeau.’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, Monica, the little girl from Captain Marvel.’ I flew off the handle, so excited!”
So yes, the excitement level was clearly through the roof, but landing a role in a Marvel project must come with a whole lot of pressure, too. But, that’s where turning to friends who also happen to be Marvel veterans comes in handy big time. Here’s what Parris said when asked for the best advice she received when first joining the MCU:
“To have fun. I think when I got it, I’m like, oh my gosh, it’s exciting, but then it can be very daunting. It’s huge! And so, a good friend of mine - Mackie, Anthony Mackie, I’ll just say, our Captain America - he was like, ‘Make sure you have fun. Have fun. It’s good. It’s a good time, good people, have fun.’”
Not only is Parris applying that positive mentality to her Marvel run, but she’s also got a broader rule for herself that might be one of the best answers ever received to the question that Collider Ladies Night always ends on - what’s your biggest fear overcome? Here’s how Parris answered that one:
“I try not to operate in the space of fear. Even if it comes up, changing the language around it so that it doesn’t manifest into a full-fledged fear.”
Who else is going to back pocket that idea and try to apply it to their own fears? (Or rather, could-be fears.) If you’d like to hear even more from Parris about her very first TV gig, what it was like working with Spike Lee on Chi-Raq, her high hopes for Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels and loads more, watch her episode of Collider Ladies Night at the top of this article or listen to the uncut version of the interview using the podcast embed below:
Teyonah Parris Video Interview:
- 00:00 - Dicey Questions
- 02:36 - TV Themed Dream Team: Parris casts her WandaVision co-stars in The Cosby Show.
- 04:24 - The Good Wife
- 05:03 - Chi-Raq & Survivor’s Remorse
- 07:52 - WandaVision
- 14:34 - Skydiving