This is her untold truth.
Rather, she was Dede Gurira.
Even when the family relocated back to Zimbabwe, Dede stuck.
It was only as Gurira got older that she started to question her Americanized moniker.
“As I went into my adolescent years, a consciousness built up in me … She discussed this and the greater point of working towards female empowerment in a wide-ranging interview withBustle.
[For example], she’s fierce and feminine.
We can be all those things,” theBlack Pantherstar stated emphatically.
Gurira starred alongsideLupita Nyong’oand Letitia Wright, among others, with the trio boasting some serious BFF chemistry.
As it turns out, this isn’t the first time these three talented ladies have worked together.
As Gurira explained to/Film, she, Nyong’o, and Wright all go way back.
Likewise Wright was cast in the same role during the play’s London run.
Gurira noted, “I loved her from the second I saw her.”
After adopting a disguise to infiltrate a gathering of no-goods, Gurira ends up battling in her finery.
And, in a hilariously brilliant maneuver, the warrior generalchucks off her wigto use during a fight.
“I loved it.
I thought it was subversive in a really important way.
I thought it sort of threw a wig in the face of western beauty concepts,” she explained.
“I thought it was a great combination of subversive femininity and ferocity at the same time.”
As Gurira explained in the interview, she uses exercise as a way to keep stress in check.
In an interview withNPR, Gurira gushed about the film’s impact on her personally.
My playwriting became a ‘necessity being the mother of invention’ punch in thing.
I say, actually that’s going to make it not work.
Because it’s going to step it away from the truth."
“When I got the offer, I was at the opening of my playEclipsedon Broadway.
Gurira was a huge fan of Coogler already, and their connection was instant.
I couldn’t remember where I parked my car after that meeting …
I was all the way in long before I had a script.”
She explained that she doesn’t consider herself a performer and described her job as that of an activist.
“What’s funny is that I never saw what I wanted to do as entertainment.
That’s going to sound wretchedly pretentious, but I never did.
I always saw what I was going to do as needing to tell stories that aren’t being told.
Why isn’t the African female voice being heard?
What can I do to help that happen?
She stated, “Storytelling is such a fantastic way to do that.
In an interview withVogue, she discussed why it was such an important moment for the greater Broadway community.
“There always has to be a first.
I’m surprised the first is in 2016, but some people need precedent.
As such, theBlack Pantherstar described herself as a “Zamerican” in an interview withRolling Stone.
We’re still stuck in an epidemic around this issue, and it’s crazy.
… Why is there no gender equality anywhere on the globe?
We’ve got to give it our full attention,” she raged.
At least, not yet anyway.
Each night, following the performance, the names of four of the missing girls were shared onstage.
The playwright noted, “There is power in naming.”
As for their downtime, Gurira excitedly shared, “It was really beautiful, actually.
We had a good time together.
… Yeah, it was a great sisterhood.
We took a lot of care of each other.”
