To celebrate the release of the highly-anticipated new Marvel film, Eternals, the cast and the film’s director reunited virtually for a press conference moderated by awards editor at Rotten Tomatoes, Jacqueline Coley.
Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige kicked off the conference by crediting producer Nate Moore and director Chloé Zhao for honoring Jack Kirby’s comics with their ambitions and visions of the film, he said:
It was in a post-Infinity Saga world, we wanted to make a bold new step and say, ‘You don’t know everything about the universe, yet.’ And, ‘There are these 10 great heroes you haven’t met.’
When asked what attracted her to the character of Thena, Angelina Jolie said:
I was attracted to this project for many reasons. I am a fan of MCU. Was a big fan of Chloe’s and then when they first talked to me about the story, really, it was the-the cast. It was the idea of what this family would be. And I just wanted to be a part of this family before I even knew very much about who I was gonna play. Um, but as-but as I learned about Thena, and that’s one of the special things that Chloe brings to this, is she’s known for, uh, bringing r-reality to-to a film. To-to-to somebody’s true self. So a lot of us were cast, uh, uh, to bring out something from our own lives, something within ourselves, that maybe we weren’t even aware of. And then let it-let it live and let it grow within the film. So, she is maybe the-the f-seems the most fantastic I’ve ever played in a superhero. And yet, my children said she thought it was the most like me.
So, it’s hard to talk about her, but her vulnerability, and her, uh, what she’s trying to balance. And that being able to be in the same woman who is also considered very strong. I think we often have to present to be fully together to be strong. And-and yet, I think she holds both, which most people do. And it’s important to-to see it.
Let’s be honest, there aren’t too many Latino superheroes represented on the big screen or any screen for that matter, but Salma Hayek is changing all that with her character when asked what it means to represent Latinos in the Marvel universe, Hayek said:
It’s a really humbling experience because I dream big. I dream big and if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten here at all but in my big dreams, I wanted to be a superhero and I wanted to work with the best directors in the world and have big blockbuster movies and also movies that are art that are made from a very deep place with great directors…but it didn’t happen for me. It didn’t happen that much for me…in 40s, you go, ‘Oh, screw them, they don’t get it! They missed out! I would’ve been great in the art films! I would’ve been great as a superhero.’…It’s very humbling when in the middle of your 50s a brilliant director gives you the opportunity to do both, to do something that comes from a deep place…I was wrong. Everything is possible. It’s such a humbling sensation. When you think about it, in your 50s, Mexican, I’m short with big boobs, it’s not the normal superhero!…It was a man [in the comics]! Impossible!… They let me do my action!… They were not afraid of the insurance that grandma was going to break in the middle of it!
We had the honor and privilege of attending an advanced screening of Eternals and all we can say is that it is mesmerizing, two powerful, “chingona” women Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek are next-level awesome, and another badass, director Chloe Zhao did a superb job. Eternals is a must-watch, watch it on the biggest screen you can find!