For Lashana Lynch, 2022 was all about exhibiting off her vary. In Sony’s The Lady King, she performs Igozie, a member of the historic, all-female warrior unit often called the Agojie, led by Viola Davis’ Basic Nanisca. Whereas it required intense coaching (and doing her personal stunts), it match proper together with the opposite roles in Lynch’s filmography — amongst them a pilot in Captain Marvel and a undercover agent in No Time to Die. But it surely was Netflix’s Matilda the Musical, based mostly on the Roald Dahl novel and subsequent stage musical that performed the West Finish and Broadway, that was the most important departure from Lynch’s string of badass characters. As Miss Honey, the type and supportive instructor who makes an attempt to guard the younger title character from the merciless and brutish headmistress Miss Trunchbull (performed by Emma Thompson), Lynch needed to embrace her softer, much less assured aspect — and belt some tunes. The actress just lately spoke with THR about discovering the throughline between these back-to-back roles and what she discovered from her powerhouse co-stars.

I wish to discuss Matilda first as a result of Miss Honey is so totally different from the characters you’re identified for. Was that a part of the attraction?

I’ve been determined to [play] somebody who’s fragile, weak, emotional and [wears their] coronary heart on [their] sleeve and doesn’t actually know what to do themselves. I really like being in cost as a human being and taking part in beautiful characters who’ve lots of confidence. However I really feel like with all the assured human beings I’ve portrayed, I’ve at all times tried to weave in some questioning of self or self-doubt, self-deprecation, nervousness. Typically it doesn’t at all times have a spot. And now I’ve discovered a spot. I started working with youngsters and to be delicate; I bought to study extra about myself and the way I wish to strategy a personality. In a nutshell, it was simply what I wanted.

Had been you a Matilda fan earlier than signing on as Miss Honey?

Sure! I learn and reread the e book as a toddler. I liked the [1996 film, starring Mara Wilson as Matilda]. I attempted a number of instances to see the [stage] present and will by no means get a ticket, which I’m actually glad about, truly. It’s nice to return to one thing recent. It’s like Shakespeare — what’s your model going to be? I had this nice dialog with [director Matthew Warchus] on the high about what Miss Honey was going to be, and I used to be terrified that I used to be going to mess it up. I come from straight theater — I’m used to drama. That is the opposite aspect of the coin, however that’s why it was so thrilling.

What was the largest problem with this position?

To not take myself too severely. Coming from drama faculty and over 10 years within the trade, you wish to be sure you’ve executed all the proper issues by your character, that you just’re having all the suitable conversations with the director, that you’re on level for that first day of faculty. Right here, I used to be in a position to simply actually play. I imply, we’ve bought tons of of youngsters on set. If I had been to return in and be like, “Properly, my backstory is …” (Laughs.) You need to simply fall into the fold and be as easygoing as attainable. And there are these actually delicate, tiny human beings who’re working round your ft each day. I relied on my conversations with Matthew, which helped me understand that Miss Honey — and Matilda, to a sure extent — provides stability. Everyone seems to be within the sky, and we’re those who’re continuously attempting to remain on the bottom.

Did you study something from working with so many little one actors?

I consider that youngsters must be spoken to as human beings as a result of the extra that we underestimate their minds, the extra [likely] we’re those who’re going to look silly. They take up a lot greater than we anticipate. And these youngsters had been good. They spent 5, six months in boot camp, studying appearing and choreography. They in all probability had extra prep than I had. I simply wished to make sure that they felt they might belief me, that they felt protected and that I used to be simply taking part in off of them — permitting myself to be as free as an actor round these individuals who have essentially the most elite stage of freedom.

That’s very a lot the spirit of Miss Honey: treating youngsters as equals, versus — as Miss Trunchbull would name them — maggots.

I genuinely love youngsters, and I’m so fascinated by their brains. And the crew and I had been substitute dad and mom for them at sure moments, — once they don’t know fairly what they’re doing, or they hadn’t heard Matthew’s path, they’d come to me and I must have the reply. I wished them to see me as Lashana, however I wished them to be guided by Miss Honey. In the long run [a few kids said], “I hope you’ll be able to come to our college and train!”

You sing in Matilda — have you ever executed a lot musical theater?

I began off singing for a very long time, from a extremely younger age till my first yr of drama faculty, in all probability round 19 or 20. I used to be recording an EP, going to the studio after class — it was glorious. I simply couldn’t do each, proper? I didn’t wish to do musical theater, I wished to do appearing and singing individually. I believed, “In some unspecified time in the future in life, there’s going to be a world wherein they’ll coexist, however it is going to be on my phrases that will likely be my alternative, and I’ll be capable to have the perfect character to sing by.”

And Miss Honey is just not a typical huge, showy musical theater position.

That’s what comforted me. I used to be like, “Are you certain that you really want me as Miss Honey? There are many folks — I may even recommend some; I’ve some mates who could be nice for it!” (Laughs.) I didn’t need her to get misplaced on the earth. Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood [Matilda’s parents, played by Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough] and Miss Trunchbull have these fantastical moments, and Miss Honey is the middle of the storm for Matilda. And for the youngsters who’re discovering Miss Honey for the primary time, that is their Miss Honey, and that’s unbelievable.

You talked about your younger co-stars going by boot camp to arrange for Matilda —which was in all probability virtually as grueling as your preparation for The Lady King.

I believed I had preparation till I noticed I had no preparation. Sure, I used to be athletic as a young person. Sure, I did dance at one level in life. Sure, I’ve executed some stunts. However to have a director and the stunt coordinator and a coach see your capabilities and your physique and say that you are able to do it — and we’re not going to have a stunt double? That’s wild! However I’m actually aggressive, and I at all times attempt to rise to the problem. There was completely no manner that I’d enable them to assume so extremely of me and never ship. It was life-changing. My physique was shaking after each single [workout] session — an hour and a half of weight coaching after which straight into three-plus hours of stunts, martial arts, choreography each single day.

Igozie is like Miss Honey in that she is a mentor to Thuso Mbedo’s Nawi. Was that in your thoughts whenever you filmed these films?

It was new to be prepping a job a month or two months previous to ending one other position. Actually, I used to be nonetheless taking part in Miss Honey in the previous few weeks whereas I used to be altering my eating regimen and coaching for The Lady King, which as you’ll be able to think about was a small nightmare. I haven’t had any throughlines [among my film roles] which have [made] as a lot sense as this. It spoke to me because the sort of individual I wish to be for my neighborhood, for younger folks and for my future youngsters. I wish to be certain that we’re instilling the suitable mindset, the suitable throughline of their life to make sure that they’re actually simply remembering that they’re sufficient. And it’s good that we get to see a younger Black girl in 2022 in cinema be a supporting character who is just not bashing affect and inspiration into younger folks’s heads however is reminding them that they’re succesful.

One other throughline is that you just started working with superb ladies in Emma Thompson and Viola Davis. What did you study from them?

Working with two ladies like Emma and Viola in the identical yr, back-to-back, you’re reminded that we’re all people making selections, constructing upon our experiences and bringing them to work. We come to work hoping that we will create collectively, and making errors and forgetting your traces and reminding the youngsters that we’re doing a take — or dropping a machete and choosing it up once more — is vital. It’s empowering to really feel that from two unbelievable, formidable ladies. Viola has all the hallmarks of somebody who you wish to be round perpetually and ever. She taught me find out how to exist at work as an actual human being and remind folks that you just’re a human being, not this power that has come to work. Emma’s just about the identical: “Don’t ever have a look at me as I’m this huge, superb big. I’m only a human being that’s attempting to make it work.” We present up each day, we keep linked. And we change into leaders collectively, as an alternative of anticipating the extra skilled individual to be [in charge].

Interview edited for size and readability.

This story first appeared within the Jan. 11 problem of The truestarz journal. Click on right here to subscribe.