Ms. Marvel actor Iman Vellani dropped by The Tonight Show for a delightful chat with Jimmy Fallon, in which she shared her love for Marvel’s superheroes, gushed about meeting Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige, and recounted how she got the lead role in Marvel’s latest superhero series.
“My aunt forwarded me a WhatsApp of the casting call,” said Vellani. “Super sketchy, I don’t know what casting calls look like. But I’m like, obsessed with Marvel, obsessed with Ms. Marvel, read all the comics in high school, dressed up as her on Halloween….
“I sent in my self tape at like 3 a.m., wasn’t gonna do it. And then the next day I get a call, they were like, ‘Do you have a lawyer? We wanna fly you to L.A.’ And I was like, ‘I have a math test, but can we like — we’ll figure this out!'”
Considering her character Kamela Khan is a huge fan of superheroes as well, Vellani being such a big Marvel nerd is very fitting.
‘Ms. Marvel’ review: New Disney+ show grapples with fandom and tradition in a stylish MCU premiere
Vellani also talked about finding out Marvel secrets before they’re made public, as well as meeting Spider-Man actor Tom Holland for the first time while half-dressed in her make-up trailer. Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t seen Spider-Man: No Way Home and has somehow avoided all information about it.
“And he goes ‘So like, what’s your show even about?'” said Vellani. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, what’s Spider-Man [No Way Home] about?’ ‘Cause I’m trying to be smart with him. And he fully just like shows me a photo of like, him with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire. And I was like, ‘Dude.'”
Ms. Marvel arrives June 8 on Disney+.
