In her POWER

Alongside the highly anticipated release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, actress Letitia Wright speaks about grief, strength and finding her own way.

- MAYA MENON

Letitia Wright is still processing the magnitude of the last four years. As she dials in from Los Angeles early one Sunday morning, she is sprightly and warm despite a gruelling schedule. In the lead up to the long-awaited sequel to Marvel’s Black Panther on 11 November, she shares what her last month has looked like: countless planes, a flurry of hotel rooms and quick meals. Her recount, however, ends with the word blessing.

At just 28 years old, the Guyanese-British starlet has proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with. Wright first graced screens through blockbuster titles like Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Top Boy and Black Mirror, with the latter earning her an Emmy Award nomination. It was her character in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther as the technology-loving princess of Wakanda in 2018, however, that catapulted her to colossal heights. Wright joined the ranks of a star-studded cast, from the late Chadwick Boseman and Lupita Nyong’o to Angela Bassett and Michael B Jordan. “Playing Shuri has changed my life in many ways. She reaffirmed that this is the path for me and that all of the hard times—the failed auditions, crying in Starbucks after a messed-up casting—were worth it,” she shares. In 2019, Wright went on to clinch a Rising Star Award at the British Academy Film Awards and the Screen Actors Guild’s inaugural award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.