BLACK PANTHER Actress’s Christian Faith Saved Her from a “Very Dark Place”
By Tess Farrand, Staff Writer
This year, Marvel’s BLACK PANTHER smashed records, grossing over $700 million domestically. Among the cast of the movie is Letitia Wright, who played Princess Shuri, the tech-savvy sister of Wakandan King/ Black Panther, T’Cahalla (Chadwick Boseman). In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wright revealed that she came of out dark period of life by relying on God.
Wright grew up in the U.K and fostered a love for acting from an early age, often handing her resumé to casting agents directly. Through her teenage years and early twenties, she experienced some good casting traction, landing TV roles on HOLBY CITY and TOP BOY in the United Kingdom. Yet, as her professional accolades kept increasing, Wright began to sink into a depression.
Wright went to a Bible study in 2015, and God got ahold of her heart, rescuing her from depression and redirecting her energy to healing. THR notes, “immersing herself in Christianity, she found her equilibrium. Acting, she could take or leave; she turned down a film with Nicole Kidman to focus on her rehabilitative journey.” Wright commented, “I wrapped it up and was done with it, happy to do anything that was more chilled, but that’s not the way God had it with me.”
After landing a small role on Steven Spielberg’s READY PLAYER ONE, Wright starred in her breakout role in BLACK PANTHER. With her mind focused on God, Wright cultivated an attitude of positivity on set that let her light shine through to the cast and crew. Chadwick Boseman said of Wright, “I just enjoy having her around. Her joy, her spunk, it gave us all something. It gave us all a little piece of, I guess, the inspiration for the movie that we needed.”
The twenty-five-year-old actress aspires to continue acting but with a mindset of humility. Wright said, “My aim is just to remain as humble and as godly as I can be. Because for me it’s still another day at the office, like it’s just a role that I’m a vessel for. … My only hope is that it can just allow me to do more roles and more projects that people can like and I can continue to contribute to the world in a positive way.”
Wright expresses her Christian faith by showing her gratitude to Jesus on social media. One tweet reads, “from my heart to the heavensss Jesus be the centre. It’s all about you.”
from my heart to the heavensss Jesus be the centre. It’s alll about youuuu
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) September 17, 2018
Another one reads, “The only one you should be looking up to and glorifying is God above.”
The only one you should be looking up to and glorifying is God above.
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) September 15, 2018
Along with the success of BLACK PANTHER, Wright gained an Emmy nomination for an episode of BLACK MIRROR in which she guest starred. In the future, Wright will reprise her role as Shuri in the fourth AVENGERS movie along with the second BLACK PANTHER which is scheduled to start shooting early next year.
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