Brie Larson is on a mission to save the world — and not just in her latest flick, superhero blockbuster “Captain Marvel.”
The Academy Award-winning actress might be the star of the first female-led Marvel movie, but that’s not the only glass ceiling she plans on shattering.
The 29-year-old “Room” actress wants to use her platform in the lead up to the highly anticipated blockbuster to give voices to underrepresented journalists. That’s why, for her recent Marie Claire UK cover story, she handpicked journalist Keah Brown to profile her.
Brown, a freelance journalist and author from New York, is perceptive, creative and whip-smart. She is also a woman of color and has cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects movement, motor skills, and muscle tone.
Larson, a fierce advocate for sexual assault survivors, told Brown in her interview for Marie Claire that she was sick of big press tours being “overwhelmingly white [and] male”.
“About a year ago, I started paying attention to what my press days looked like and the critics reviewing movies, and noticed it appeared to be overwhelmingly white male,” she said. So she reached out to the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
They put together a study that found that of the 100 highest-grossing movies in 2017, 67 percent of top critics were white males, less than 25 percent were white women, while 10 percent were men of color and 2.5 percent were women of color.
“I decided to make sure my press days were more inclusive,” Larson said, adding, “it sounded like across the board [women of color] weren’t getting the same opportunities as others.”
Larson said that when she spoke to the people providing the opportunities, or lack thereof, “they all had different excuses.” So she took it into her own hands.
Brown, for one, said that the celeb assignment to interview Larson was “game-changing” for her.
“Nobody usually wants to take a chance on a disabled journalist,” Brown wrote.
“Captain Marvel” opens in theaters March 8.