When Danai Gurira was about nine or ten years old, he was punched in the stomach by a classmate two years older than him. “I’m just talking, outsmarting him and probably being a little repugnant, but anything goes,” she told me in a recent Zoom call. “And he…” She pauses. “He hit me. He punched myself. Like four times in the stomach. boom boom boom boom”
After that happened, Gurira went into a state of shock. “I had never experienced violence,” she says. “I wasn’t. My father never hit me. I didn’t know what this was.” Gurira wasn’t much of a crybaby as a child. (“I was a tough kid. I was kidding,” she qualifies.) But she couldn’t help but burst into tears shortly after a classmate’s violent outburst. Not knowing how to answer, she eventually went to the principal, a white woman from Zimbabwe, and said, “Look what happened to me.”
Perhaps unwittingly, Gurira put a lot of stock on the principal’s next move. She said, “By what she’s going to do, she’s come to define how I feel that she can push the world forward as a woman when she deals with injustice.” rice field. Anything—or when she wants a voice,” she continues. “It will be very decisive.”
So when the principal chastised the students, Gurira felt a strange power. For Gurira, the principal was the representative of powerful women. It was revelatory to see her power exercised to stand up for what was right. “It did something for me,” she says. She remembers watching her classmates walk out of the principal’s office crying. , I feel like there was something very powerful.Someone will stand up for me.For others,” she says. “From that moment came some sense of justice and a passion for women and girls and our protection and rights.”
Gurira recalled this story as she looked back at the Rich Vilodus book she was reading. deeply formed life, As she puts it, it prompted me to revisit her “formatting years” to better understand the decisions she’s making now. It was prompted by a question that interested me to tell, but in speaking I also mention how this same experience speaks to the role that is best known today.
Gurira first appeared in a 2004 episode and has had nearly two decades of screen credits. Law and Order: Criminal Intent(“Everyone does a little. Law and order Throughout her career, she has had one foot firmly planted in the world of theater, both as an actor and as an award-winning playwright.
PH5 bodysuit and helmet. Sneaker Giuseppe Zanotti. Pamela Love’s ring (top). Ring (bottom) by Joanna Laura Constantine.
PH5 bodysuit and helmet. Sneaker Giuseppe Zanotti. Ring Joanna Laura Constantine.
These projects, along with her work in David Simon’s post-Katrina New Orleans saga Treme, It will bring some credit to Gurira. However, it wasn’t until 2012 that she made her debut as the ruthless sword-wielding Michonne in AMC’s zombie drama. the walking dead, That Gurira really became nationally famous.That character that left the walking dead Coming out in 2020, it’s set to return next year with a new six-episode spin-off set and has quickly become a fan favorite. Gurira has become a bona fide star. In fact, of Gurira’s oeuvre, Michonne is probably her second most popular. that’s all to General Okoye, the fierce leader of the Dora Milaje, an all-female army dedicated to defending the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda. Okoye made his first screen appearance in his Marvel entry in the Disney blockbuster. black pantherSince then, Gurira has Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgameand of course, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, It hits theaters on November 11, 2022.
