My Experience At The Black Panther Press Conference In Los Angeles

It’s almost that time people to head to the theaters to see Black Panther this Friday! I took my son yesterday afternoon and he was so surprised! I told him that he had a doctor’s appointment but when he saw that I was not headed in that direction, he questioned where we were going. That’s when I revealed that we were headed to the movie, he was stoked lol. While out in Los Angeles on the Disney press trip, we had the pleasure of attending a press junket with the cast and director moderated by Nischelle Turner. She asked specific questions then turned it over to full house of journalists, bloggers and social media influencers.

Before we headed into the press junket, they had some of the costumes worn by the actors on display for us to see. The actors are so tiny but the costumes were really detailed. Lupita’s costume, she plays Nakia (far left), Black Panther played by Chadwick Boseman (middle), and Letitia Wright’s costume who plays by Shuri(far right).

This was actor Daniel Kaluuya’s costume who plays W’Kabi

One of our Disney Bloggers Ari Adams asked Chadwick, why it was important for him to have T’Challa speak with an African accent.

Chadwick replied…I think you have to tell the stories and be true to yourself as an artist. There was a time period where people were asking me questions about whether or not an audience could sit through a movie with a lead character who spoke with that accent, people outside Marvel as well and so I became adamant about the fact that that is not true. That the intonations and melodies inside an African accent are just as classical as a British one or a European one and that all of the emotions and aspects of a character can be shown and expressions can be shown through that accent. We have to take this opportunity to show that and he just wouldn’t, if he had never been conquered, if his ancestors had never been conquered and he’s never been conquered and Wakanda is what it is, he doesn’t have to go to Oxford to study.”

Lupita on how women can work together…

What I love about the way this film represents women is that each and every one of us is an individual and we all have our own sense of power and our own agency and we hold our own space without being pitted against each other. I think that’s a very, very powerful message to send to children, both male and female. I think often times in movies we fall into that trap where women, there’s very few of us and then we are against each other.

There’s a competitive spirit and stuff like that and this film freezes all that. We see women going about their business and supporting each other, even arguing with each other and having different points of view, but still not being against each other. I think that’s extremely important and in so doing this film, there’s so many of us, we really get a sense of the fabric of Wakanda as a nation and we see women alongside men and we see how much more effective a society can be if they allow women to explore their full potential, yeah.

Director Ryan Coogler talked about writing the script 2 years ago.

Ryan said there was things in the film that have been relevant for centuries but the truth of the matter is Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the whole Marvel bullpen created Wakanda and created T’Challa and created Black Panther and made him smarter, more accomplished character than any of the other white characters in the mid 1960’s.

Andy Serkis shared a funny story about what Ryan said to him…

Ryan said to him that he had never actually directed two white actors before. And probably not, probably ever, it was hilarious, it was kind of hilarious, but at the same time it was just like that’s tragic.

Daniel talked about sitting down with Director Ryan Coogler on his vision of the film…

When Ryan sat me down and talked to me about his vision, and the story, and the characters, and the women, I was just floored, you know, because you don’t actually get to hear that often. And then it embodied with us being on the continent, women from the continent, but very developed, very complex. It was amazing.” This pride around it, and this sort of embracing of this sort of symbol of power in these women.

Angela Bassett talked about how proud she was to have her twins at the premiere because they left the theater standing a little bit taller. Awh, how cute!

Check out my blogger buddy Ari Adams full coverage of the press junket!