Ariana DeBose recalls the moment she found out she landed her role as Calypso in 'Kraven the Hunter' with THR at the film's premiere. Plus, she dishes on working with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and their instant chemistry.
00:00Congratulations, you're making your Marvel debut.
00:03What was it like when you got the call saying that you were going to be a part of this?
00:07Oh, well, you know what?
00:08I actually, this is a fun story.
00:11I, the night I won the SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story,
00:17my team took me to dinner and a waiter came and brought out a dessert.
00:22And he said, here you go, Calypso.
00:24And I was like, I'm sorry, what?
00:26Like, looked at him like he had seven heads.
00:28And my team was like, you got the job.
00:29And I said, oh, my God, we had like a really fun celebration.
00:33And it was a really glorious night.
00:35Yeah, it was cool.
00:36I was terrified, but also very excited.
00:40And to be able to kind of like debut a Marvel character or comic book character in this way
00:46has to be really exciting.
00:47What was it like to be on that set and sort of build out the dynamic with Aaron Taylor Johnson?
00:52Do you feel like there was anything that you guys did to build that chemistry?
00:55Or would you say it was pretty instant?
00:56I personally felt our chemistry was instant.
01:00You might want to have to ask him.
01:03Aaron is an exceptionally talented actor.
01:06He loves to spar.
01:08He both finds the depth of a character and the humor and everything in between.
01:15And that's a really fun person to be in the sandbox with.
01:19I think he, in the context of our work together, I was very inspired by him at different points.
01:24He played a scene in a creek with a fish that I just never seen a funnier moment.
01:30And I was like, I'm going to work on my own sense of freedom and play.
01:36And he was very inspiring to me.
01:39I had a really good time.
01:43Mind you, we made this movie over quite a long time.
01:47But I learned a lot about continuity and being even more malleable than even I expect it to be.
01:55I think when you bring characters that derive from comics to the screen, there is a certain amount of expectation.
02:02But also this film with J.C. Chandor's direction, it is a departure from the traditional styles that you have seen from the Sony Marvel Universe.
02:12It is a standalone film, so that did give us a lot of freedom because we don't tie into other things.
02:19And I personally was very liberated by that because it allowed me to kind of go to Calypso's origins and play a very layered woman coming to a transitional time in her life, meeting an unexpected partner.
02:34Because you don't expect a partner in crime or not crime to look like that.
02:42His costumes are his arms and his abs.
02:45So it's a beautiful thing.
02:47Very quickly, I wanted to ask, we have our question of the week where we're asking the same thing to everyone on the carpet.
02:52So what is your favorite movie of 2024 outside of your own?
02:572024 outside of my own.
03:00That is a really hard question because I watch a lot of movies.
03:09I did thoroughly enjoy Wicked, I'm not going to lie.
03:13It's like, it's very much at the forefront of my mind.
03:15I really enjoyed that film.
03:18The Sisterhood, well, it's like, I think it's great to explore that kind of love between friends.
03:23You know what I mean?
03:24It's very deep, especially amongst women.
03:26And the world that they created and how they did that with such attention to detail, the costumes, the DP, the sets.
03:35Oh my God.
03:36I'm just, I'm very...
03:37Living rent-free.
03:38Living rent-free.
03:39Totally fine.
03:40Also, all hail Michelle Yeoh, Bo and Yang, Cynthia, and Ariana.
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