#INTERVIEW: IMAN VELLANI ON “MS. MARVEL”

Markham’s own IMAN VELLANI unveiled her amazing new Series MS. MARVEL tonight at a Special Advance Screening for the Disney+ Series. The Series centers on a New Jersey teen named Kamala Khan (Vellani), obsessed with the Avengers, who discovers her own powers – that she’s a Superhero!

We were so lucky to get to chat with this breakout star tonight at the Red Carpet, held at Cineplex Yonge & Dundas where Vellani‘s family and friends showed-up to give her support.

Vellani chat with us all about landing the gig of a lifetime, walking us right through the exact moment her world would change forever.

Vellani: “I was on my friend’s driveway, it was the last day of school, and Sarah Finn (Casting Director) texts me, and she’s like ‘Can you get on this call?’. And I’m like ‘No’. My friends hadn’t known I’d auditioned. And she was like, ‘I’ll send you the link, get on 😉’. I’m like okay, and I get out of my friend’s car and I’m on the driveaway, and I just open my phone and it’s Kevin Feige‘s (President of Marvel Studios) face. I could not handle that! I could not breathe. And here we are, we’re still alive and breathing and he told me I got the part. So I went back into my friend’s car and she asked, ‘So what happened? Did you win the lottery?’. And I said, “Basically!’. And then we went for Burritos. It was a good day!”.

What’s one piece of advice Ms. Marvel would give Iman Vellani?

Vellani: “Take pride in who you are. She’s so unapologetically herself. She doesn’t change herself for any boy, any friend and I think that’s so admirable in this world of Social Media where we’re constantly putting on different faces. We don’t even know who we are at the end of the day when we look at the mirror. I think I’ve found so much solace in Kamala and how much she knows herself.”.

What was her biggest challenge?

Vellani: “It was pretty easy. I was like, just being myself. It was great!”.

See highlights here:

Some Snaps from the night:

MS. MARVEL arrives June 8, 2022 on Disney+.

(Photo/video credit: Marvel Studios/Mr. Will Wong)