I AM SO HAPPY FOR ANGELA BASSETT FOR WINNING HER SECOND GOLDEN GLOBES ( even though she deserves way more than that for her dedication and hard work over the years!!!! )
“For me, being a complete artist means not necessarily just being in front of the camera, but being behind the camera or being the originator or creator of something.”
“When they call you and say, 'So you want to play 'Black Panther?'' if you know what 'Black Panther' is, there's no way in the world you're going to say no because there's a lot of opportunity for magic to happen.”
“I watched movies, obviously, just like anybody else, but there was nothing to make me think, 'I'm going to go to L.A. and become a movie star,' or anything like that.”
there’s this weird shit die hard mcu stans do when people beg for, like, appropriate representation of characters where they start talking about how “marvel won’t cast an unknown to play [x]!!” and i’m just like? why not? they’ve done it before?
being in the mcu has singlehandedly vaulted multiple people into worldwide name recognition. they’d all been in movies before but tom holland, anthony mackie, chris hemsworth, mark ruffalo, hayley atwell, jeremy renner, tom hiddleston, even elizabeth olsen herself in all her slur saying glory only became as universally recognized as they did because they were cast in the mcu. actors like chris pratt and zendaya and chris evans and sebastian stan had followings already from semi-popular media, but nothing near the level of popularity they got once they were in the mcu (yes even zendaya and sebastian stan, homecoming was her first feature film role and all she’d done at that point was disney channel, sebastian had a niche following for being hot and having been on gossip girl but that was it).
i mean hell, the mcu is BUILT on casting unknown or shaky quantities, it’s literally what helped reboot rdj’s career after his substance abuse issues and favreau had to fight really hard to be allowed to cast him as tony. out of the original avengers, the only cast member who didn’t end up getting a huge boost in popularity and brand recognition from those movies was scarlett johansson because she was already at that level.
so YES, marvel casting unknowns or niche actors isn’t unheard of, they SHOULD continue casting unknowns because hollywood cycling through the same five actors twice a year is going to get really old and really annoying very fast, and while casting those unknowns, it’s entirely fair for people to ask that the casting be, ya know, appropriate and representative of the ethnicity and race of the character they’re playing (like casting an afro-latina to play an afro-latina or casting a romani woman to play a romani woman lizzie)