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 resume to casting agents directly. Through her teenage years and early 20s, 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. The Hollywood Reporter 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.”
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Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett