All language subtitles for MPower.S01E01.WEBRip.x265-ION265

With Black Panther,

we've never seen a world like this,

populated with so many
different faces and colors.

Women who look like me
in their resplendent glory

were few and far between,

and had never been
quite realized or seen before.

I fell in love with this story,

almost as if
I'm on the outside looking in.

Shuri.

As a little girl,

as an audience member,
as a woman of color...

...enamored with cinema and characters

and how they can inspire onscreen.

It is your time.

And Black Panther is that story

that truly has transported audiences.

- T'CHALLA: Wakanda forever!
Wakanda forever!

I'm unstoppable

I'm a Porsche with no brakes

I'm invincible

Yeah, I win every single game

I'm so powerful

I don't need batteries to play

I'm so confident

Yeah, I'm unstoppable today

Unstoppable today
Unstoppable today

Unstoppable today
I'm unstoppable today

We are home.

LUPITA NYONG'O: The representation
of women in Black Panther...

...is plentiful and varied.

And I think those things
are incredibly vital.

We don't see enough of that in cinema.

You are not fit to be a king!

The idea of being
a woman in charge of things...

It's embedded in the very DNA of how
this story was built from the beginning...

Don't touch anything.

...that these women were that powerful.

Take her to the River Province
to prepare her for the ceremony.

Yes, General.

NYONG'O: We were very much
the backbone of the male superhero.

A very capable group of women
who support him in very different ways.

His sister, his mother,

his lover, his general.

Typically, there's not a lot
of strong female characters in cinema.

And then, if you then think about
Black female characters, boy.

That is a very shallow pool.

But heroes get to be
whoever we define them to be.

Black Panther was a very

female-driven, you know, feature,
which was amazing.

And we wanted to make sure

that the female superheroes
stand next to the men

and they're equally badass.

This is empowering
for so many people

to see on a huge screen

Black women who are really powerful.

Women are beacons of strength.

When you see yourself
represented in all your power,

you're reassured
that we're okay in the world.

Women, Black women,

can be represented
in so many different ways.

- Hold tight!

We can take on
many different roles very powerfully.

And action!

NYONG'O: It was all of us coming together

to represent powerful women.

For centuries, we have kept
our people safe.

And doing it with such ownership
and such passion.

Set.
Action.

We're so excited
to work with one another,

and I think it's something about
the strength of these women.

When I go to work,
it's my normal

that I have all these female colleagues.

And we learn from each other,
we see each other,

and we have the feeling
that we are represented.

And together, we are great

because we know what our strengths are,
and we support each other.

In Black Panther,
there wasn't just one superhero.

The Dora Milaje is a tribe of them.

The Dora Milaje
is an all-female guard and warrior unit.

You know, they're kind of like,
um, the Secret Service,

if you crossed them with Navy SEALs.

- Come on!

To have the Dora Milaje

as a representation
of the army for Wakanda,

as the protector of the Queen and King,

that says so much.

Regardless of what gender you are,

you can do anything.

The Dora,
they're just so gorgeous and powerful.

They look amazing on camera

when they're together
and when they're all doing their moves.

The idea of stepping into
a role like the Dora Milaje,

with these women being the rescuers,

that, of course, was palpably appealing.

NYONG'O: In the comic book,

the role of the Dora Milaje is quite akin

to kind of the motif
of pimps and hoes, unfortunately.

They're very scantily clothed.

They only speak to their king.

And that was something

that Ryan really wanted to get away from,

and give the Dora Milaje agency.

They were not in heels,
they were not in bathing suit tops,

and some of the comics
do present them in that way.

And so, there's an evolution

of how they are in the comic book

and how they've evolved on the screen.

This is how it should be

when you're in an equal society,

where the women are equal to the men.

Dora Milaje means
"the adorned ones."

Okoye is the general

and she's the only Dora Milaje
adorned in gold.

The other Dora wear silver.

And so, Okoye represents

great power and strength of women,

and the dedication
to her country, Wakanda.

Okoye is comfortable
with being a leader in a man's world.

She believes with all her soul

in this nation, Wakanda,

and would very willingly
give her life for it.

Wakanda was not colonized.

It was able to nurture itself
and, as a result,

became the most technologically
advanced nation on the planet.

So that made it very easy
to slip into her skin...

Something's entered the atmosphere.

...because the idea of protecting that
really makes sense to me.

I'm very vigilant about making sure,

I guess, that my life is being led by me.

I was born in a tiny town in Iowa

called Grinnell where
my dad was a professor.

My parents, they were academics

and they gave me and my siblings
all Shona names,

Shona being the language
of my nation, Zimbabwe.

Danai means "to love one another,"
or "to be in love,"

based on the fact
that I was born on Valentine's Day.

I didn't know about this

until my mom sat me down and told me.

I just knew my name to be Dede

because no one could
pronounce Danai properly.

And as a kid, you're just looking
to fit in as best as possible.

When I was around five or six,
we moved to Zimbabwe,

very soon after it had
just come out from colonial rule,

and moved from being called "Rhodesia,"

after a white man
called Cecil John Rhodes,

to being called "Zimbabwe,"
which means "house of stone."

I was in schooling systems
that were not prone to saying

a lot of Shona names.

When I was in high school,

I went to a place called
the Dominican Convent.

It's an all-girls Catholic school
founded by German nuns.

And one day, I just went off
on a lot of white girls in the class

about not saying African names right,

and I started to use
my own name as an example.

And rage of the fact
that my name was not spoken properly,

even in my own country,

became real.

And I think that really solidified for me

that Danai is the name
I needed to be called by.

It's a defining moment.

I am loyal to that throne,
no matter who sits upon it!

What are you loyal to?

NYONG'O: Okoye is steeped
in her loyalty to the throne.

She is, like, made of that stuff.

All her DNA is about that job.

She's a nationalist.

She believes in the borders of Wakanda,

in them being independent of the world.

And Nakia challenges that ideal.

This man is
a foreign intelligence operative.

How do we justify
bringing him into our borders?

He took a bullet for me.

That was his choice.

But what I love about
the relationship between Nakia and Okoye

is that the respect is always felt.

These women respect each other

for being very good at their approach,

and their goal is the same,

which is to protect and prosper
their nation and their people.

I am a spy with no army.

Help me overthrow him.

Nakia is a very free spirit,

doesn't always go by the book.

She is skilled like the Doras,

but she has something which is great,

because she says,
"I want to help everyone."

T'Challa, no!

This one's just a boy.

We meet Nakia in action.

Immediately, you're drawn
to her, her physicality,

but it's also the compassion in her eyes.

Traditionally, spies are untrustworthy,

people who look out
for their own self-interest,

but she is incredibly altruistic.

Thank you.

Yes.

And in some ways,
she is the conscience of Wakanda.

I've seen too many in need
just to turn a blind eye.

I can't be happy here

knowing that there's people out there
who have nothing.

Nakia is very much a part of innovation,

a part of how do we change,

how do we modernize,
how do we move forward,

how do we break rules
that need to be broken?

We could provide aid

and access to technology
and refuge to those who need it.

Other countries do it.
We could do it better.

NYONG'O: Nakia is very passionate,

fiery, empathetic, the lone wolf.

She goes on her own path.

She challenges the status-quo,

and I love that about her,
and I definitely share that.

The child version of Lupita

was very imaginative.

Growing up in Kenya,

I played a lot on my own.

I liked to climb trees

and I spent a lot of time
making up worlds.

And I realized

I just enjoyed the worlds I made up
more than the real world.

I remember when I was in high school,

there was a rule that we weren't allowed

to dye our hair blond or red.

So I dyed it blue.

So I identify with that spirit in Nakia,

the one who asks,

"Okay, why are things the way they are?"

When I was introduced to Wakanda,

I felt immediately protective of it.

Because it's made of dreams.

Because Wakanda is the only African nation

that has never had

the imposition of colonialism.

It has been able to self-actualize.

For me, what we've imbued in it

is a nostalgia that never was.

And you see a country
that is very forward-thinking,

but one that is also
very embracing of tradition.

And growing up as an African,

I found myself grappling

with this idea of tradition and modernity.

It's a real dichotomy

that exists on the African continent.

There's an old world
and then there's an accelerated world

that has almost forgotten,

or is rejecting, that old world.

And in Wakanda,

this tension exists
with the Shuri character

who finds herself
in that extreme corner of innovation

where she is really questioning

the validity of the traditional ways.

- My King!
- Stop it.

This corset
is really uncomfortable,

so could we all
just wrap it up and go home?

Yes!

With tradition versus innovation,

Shuri very much
over-indexes on innovation.

But she's very self-assured
as a character,

which a lot of women
and, and young girls respond to.

Why do you have your toes out in my lab?

I wanted to go old-school
for my first day.

I bet the Elders loved that.

Shuri is bold in her choices

about science and technology

and creation.

She's always thinking
of solutions to help her country.

I'm here for the EMP beads.
I've developed an update.

Update? No, it worked perfectly.

Just because something works
doesn't mean that it cannot be improved.

Shuri represents the future
in so many ways.

She has these hopes and dreams,

and she's also out there doing it.

The nanites absorb
the kinetic energy

and hold it in place for redistribution.

Shuri has this youthful exuberance
about STEM,

science, technology, engineering and math,

and how she uses STEM
to support the country.

She is intelligent beyond her years.

Look at your suit.

You've been taking bullets,
charging it up with kinetic energy.

Yes, she's strong.

I'm going as fast as I can!

Yes, she can be powerful.

Just because of her age,

people can easily underestimate her.

But she has this lack of limitation.

There's no ceilings on Shuri.

In its raw form,

Vibranium is too dangerous
to be transported at that speed.

Shuri's young, but she's gifted

and she's passionate
about being this science head, this geek.

Shuri's just knocking down
all those stereotypes of, like,

oh, if a girl's good at sciences,
she's not cool.

Strike it.

Not that hard, genius!

A lot of the technology
that Shuri is responsible for

is all about the evolution of tradition

in a way that it is evolved in technology.

The entire suit sits
within the teeth of the necklace.

Everything comes from Shuri.

When I play Ayo,
everything that protects me,

the weapons that I use,
the Dora Milaje uniform,

all starts in her lab.

The first time that Ayo is introduced

was in Captain America: Civil War.

I remember when the movie came out,
and people came and said,

"Are you the woman in the movie?"

Move. Or you will be moved.

And I said, like, "Yes,"
but I didn't really know what it meant.

Now it's different.

Florence is amazing.

She had gotten a very small part.

She had so much presence onscreen
in just a few lines

that gave us the inspiration

to then bring her into a bigger world
and a bigger role.

Ayo, the king!

Ayo is someone that,
when she grew up...

...wanted to become a Dora Milaje.

You have to make
a specific choice to join them.

You don't get born into the sisterhood.
You have to work for it.

But growing up myself,

I wasn't used to seeing
women protecting men.

And in Wakanda, that is just such a given.

You can become everything
that you want to become.

But this is a concept that is
very foreign to a lot of people

because sometimes, if it's not there,

you can't imagine it.

I was born in Uganda,

but grew up in Germany.

Back then, we didn't have
that many Black actresses,

and I noticed after a certain age that

I missed people that I could see
on the screen that look like me.

But then I went to the theater
and I saw people that looked like me

and I thought, like,
"That's what I want to do."

So that's the reason
why I became a performer.

I studied singing, acting and dancing.

And at some point, I transitioned from
dancing, learning martial arts.

My mom taught me from an early age

that you have to stay who you are.

It doesn't matter what people
try to tell you who you are.

I wouldn't be here,
doing what I'm doing now,

if she would have restricted me.

My mom was a nurse...

...and she worked in the emergency room,

so she had to deal with death a lot.

And from an early age on,
she would always talk about,

"Today, somebody died at work."

And because of that,

it was always normal for us
that people go and that's okay.

She taught me, "Instead of focusing

"that the person isn't there anymore,

"focus on what the person has achieved."

And that is something I am so grateful
that she taught me

because that is so in me
that I don't break.

The minute somebody
gives you the freedom to do something

and you notice how great you can become,

you want to achieve more,
you want to give more.

And this is just like Ayo.

She can put herself aside,
doesn't need to be in the foreground,

but when she has to lead a mission,

she's able to go out and get the job done.

Florence's character
and the Dora altogether

are a beautiful metaphor

for the women
behind the scenes on this film.

It was amazing.

I had never been on a set

with more women in positions of power.

Get back in the path

like we did earlier this morning
for our first shot.

The film is about
a lot of female characters

and we would not have been doing
the film any favors

by not opening ourselves up to

very talented female crew members.

There's no reason
for it to be a boy's club,

and I think Black Panther
kind of proves that.

The director,
Ryan Coogler, always had

this vision of strong women
behind the scenes.

We were telling a story for
a diverse world of men and women.

And so, in order to do that, we need
all those voices at the table.

Remember, no matter what,
block off when we call cut.

Ryan's compassion is infectious

and we want to rally around him
and support his ideas.

So, women tend to do that.

We're like Ryan's Dora.

We're here to protect the vision.

It's quite empowering to have
a lot of women around you.

There's a sense of nurturing of the story

because we're able to give emotionally
in a lot of different ways.

And I think that that just enhances
what you're seeing onscreen.

Hannah Beachler
was kinda like our major workhorse

in researching Wakanda.

You see it in the architecture
and the production design of, of the sets.

And action!

- Come home, Nakia.
- I'm right here.

Stay.

NYONG'O: The first few times I walked onto
the set of Black Panther,

I just remember getting goosebumps

because it represented
what was so beautiful about Africa.

Everything just seemed so purposeful.

And I think that kind of detail is
what made this movie quite special.

There are times that I'd come
on set and I'd be like,

"Oh, God. You don't understand.
This is gonna be amazing."

Like, you just see, like,
you know, Hannah's set.

As the production designer,

I wanted to bring a different light to

what had previously been called
the Dark Continent

for so many decades.

My father was an architect

and taught me early on

that you really need to
understand the land

before you can put a building on it.

So I applied that gem to Wakanda.

We travelled to South Africa

for research.

We were pretty much all over
the Sentinel Mountains and Lesotho.

Dug into the geography,

the people, the traditions.

And that's where I became inspired by

an idea of a society that's based in

tradition, community,
family and ritual.

I created this 500-page bible,
the "Wakandan Bible," as we call it.

It tells us what their timeline is,

from the Bronze Age to the current day,

comparing Wakanda's evolution
with the rest of the world.

A map of the country
and of their capital, Golden City,

their traditions, religion.

What was their trade?
What was their economy?

What do they eat?

What is their language?

Dora Milaje!

The language that they speak
in Wakanda is Xhosa,

which is a language of South Africa.

I was born and raised in Johannesburg,

so this film was really,
really important to me.

I basically referred to it
as "my soul movie."

My friends in South Africa said,
when they started speaking Xhosa,

there were gasps in the theater.

People couldn't believe, like,
"Our language is on the screen,"

and that meant something to people,
to, to, to feel, like, seen that way.

I absolutely worshipped

every single one of
the female characters in this film,

and I looked at every single scene
in Black Panther from the perspective of

"Is it being true to them?"

And he goes there.

And so I went to Ryan about
the ending scene

where the Dora Milaje are
surrounded by the Border Tribe.

As it was originally shot,

the Jabari male warriors come
and rescue them.

And I said, "I feel that undercuts

"so much of what we spent
the entire film building up."

And he agreed with me
and he worked miracles to

create a new character called
the female Jabari warrior.

And they went into additional photography,

got a new shot,

and now, the very first person to

power through the force field
and save the Dora Milaje

is a female Jabari warrior.

And it served our ladies right.

The Indigenous tribes
of Wakanda were inspired by

several different real tribes of Africa.

As the costume designer,

I approach my work from

the point of view of
responsibility to the culture.

And people need to see that more in film.

Ruth is just absolutely
bar none brilliant.

I know so much more who I am as Ramonda

when I put the costumes on.

The jewelry, the headdress,
the embroidery.

Ruth wanted to do it right, so she would
talk to people on the continent about

the processes by which
they make their clothing...

...and integrate them into her costumes.

Like the Dora Milaje with their arm rings,

their neck rings that come from

the Ndebele people of South Africa.

The Lesotho blankets
that we made into shields.

Those pieces retrained the eye

to a new form of beauty and appreciation.

This movie got to celebrate

a ton of different cultures
from across the continent.

The African country
and African women are so well represented.

They have tattoos and they have scars,

and they have lots of hair, braids,

and even have no hair.

For the Dora Milaje,
some of us didn't have hair, anyway,

but it was really just this idea that

"What's your definition of femininity?
'Cause this is mine."

You know what I mean?
And I'm good with this.

Bast willing, this will go quickly

and I can get
this ridiculous thing off my head.

The idea of "I don't wanna
wear hair on my head.

"This is ridiculous."

I found so much enjoyment in it

and freedom in it, and power in it.

And then we were deciding
what tattoo to put on.

I had a lot of tattoos
on, on my head for about a week.

And then it was like,
"Oh, my God. It's her fighter helmet.

"Forget it. This is it."

I want my tattoo. I want my bald head.

It's a strong,
bold statement.

It's just,
it's power and strength in the look.

With this film,

we're able to see women
owning their power.

Drop your weapon!

And I think that's very inspiring.

Wakanda forever!

We're excited because somebody
that looks like me is a superhero.

I've never gone to a theater
to see a film like this before,

so I just really needed to go all out.

You saw those people
in the movie theaters, like,

celebrating and dancing.

People saw themselves onscreen.

People wanted to rejoice.
We were so ready for it.

Hearing about
people feeling inspired,

going to the theater and just seeing
every single viewing for hours and hours,

it was just so magical.

It touched me and made me feel
very purposeful as an actor.

Seeing what we made
was overwhelming

because it connected people.

We are coming from these
different places, but we're still one.

Think about how impactful
that was, not just for us,

people that belong to our
respective communities of color.

But even women that don't,

and never even realized
that something like that

had never been given to us.

Yay!

We were never told
that this could be possible.

NYONG'O: Why do we need Black superheroes?

Why not?

I mean, it's a no-brainer.

There's Black people in this world

and there's room in our imaginations

to imagine ourselves as superheroes.

We don't even begin to know

the level of what these films
can do for children.

My name is Vianna Robbins
and I'm 11 years old.

My name's Amel Robbins
and I am ten years old.

My name is Darian Robbins.

I'm an environmental
project engineer with NASA.

Being an engineer myself,
I was really impressed with Shuri.

Yes!

When you go into her lab

and seeing all the stuff she's working on.

Just the breadth of her knowledge,
I mean, that just blew my mind.

The experience for my family,
and particularly my daughters,

with seeing Black Panther,

it was something that
they'd never seen before,

you know, powerful representation
of, of women onscreen.

What my daughters loved most
about the film,

was the women taking control,
and being in command,

and just doing adventurous stuff.

Daddy!

- Okay.
- Are you sick?

My girls are very adventurous themselves.

They dance,

do tae kwon do.

They ride bikes.

They have a zest for life.

High knees.

Good.

My favorite character
from Black Panther is Okoye.

I like how Okoye fights for
whoever sits on the throne,

no matter who sits on it.

She's like a warrior whenever, wherever.

And she'll get the job done.

Y'all stick together like
the Dora Milaje, right?

You'll come together like a family
to protect one another.

That makes my heart full.

I like when Shuri's in the lab
with the other woman,

working on technology for Wakanda.

My favorite character is Nakia.

I like how she fights for
people outside of her country

to help those who are struggling.

I think it's also inspiring
to other people

to see women superheroes

because they might not believe
they can do something.

But they watch Black Panther

and all of a sudden,
they believe they can do it.

They start reaching for their goal.

We're living in a time where
we're all recognizing

that these stories need to be
told about women,

a wonderful and rich universe...

...filled with female heroes.

But there's still
a lot of work to do.

Even though people are always saying
after the Oscars,

"This isn't a game changer."

Ruth Carter
is the first African American woman

to win an Oscar for Best Costume Design.

And Hannah Beachler is
the first Black woman

to be nominated and win
for Best Production Design.

People said,
"Oh, you broke the glass ceiling."

But I'm not interested in
the glass ceiling.

I'm interested in the brick wall.

Because if I take down the brick wall,

I bring down the building.

So we can redesign it.

And that's the only way to go forward.

Black Panther was not just a movie.

It changed lives.

It changed how people
thought about themselves.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Wakanda forever!

I had no anticipation

of the impact that it would have
on people of the diaspora

to just celebrate ourselves
and who we are, what our heritage is.

It's important to be able
to recognize yourself.

And with this movie,

a lot of people could watch it and think,

"Wow. People that look like me
are presented

"and we can be superheroes, too."

Wakanda forever!

I love it.

The evolution that needs to come
has to come

from the understanding
that we have to step into

what we haven't seen before

because a lot of the old models
are based in exclusion.

And then in Wakanda Forever,

we see the representation
of female characters

in so many more different ways.

It's the continuation
of the strength of the female warrior.

Her voice is strong and unsilent.

I am Queen of the most
powerful nation in the world!

It's a beautiful thing to see.

NYONG'O: Why are superheroes
so popular in this world?

I think it's because they possess

powers and perspectives that we aspire to.

And everybody deserves to exist
in imaginative spaces.