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Another round of interview for the amazing movie Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time film. I have already posted about Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling and Storm Reid’s interview on their role and feelings on the movie. Now it was time to interview Gugu-Mbatha-Raw, who plays Dr.Kate Murry mother to Meg Murry in this film.

Reese Witherspoon is Mrs Whatsit, Storm Reid is Meg Murry, Deric McCabe is Charles Wallace Murry and Gugu Mbatha-Raw is Mrs. Murry in Disney’s A WRINKLE IN TIME.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is Mrs. Murry in Disney’s A WRINKLE IN TIME.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop – MomStart.com

I loved Gugu’s pure reaction of when we applauded her right before she entered our interview session. We always know how to make the stars feel welcomed in a room of 25 bloggers.  She said our energy woke her up! I love her, and she was a super hair inspiration for me in Beyond the Lights and even in this film! She is back in another Disney whimsical film as she got her taste in the 2016 adaptation of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

Gugu-Mbatha-Raw is known for her work in Beauty and the Beast, Belle and Beyond the Lights. 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dr.Kate Murry

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dr. Kate Murry: Is the wife to Dr. Murry and mother to Meg and Charles Wallace. An intelligent microbiologist known for her exceptional brains and beauty.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop – MomStart.com

How Gugu got connected with Ava DuVernay to get casted for A Wrinkle In Time as Dr.Kate Murry

I mean ultimately it was really the opportunity to work with Ava DuVernay.  I think that not having a relationship with the book  and I had met Ava when –, Selma was coming out the same time as Belle. There were a few sort of press things. We’d always met each other at sparkly industry events but we’d never sort of had a real conversation.

And she invited me to be a part of this short film, a series of shorts that she made for the opening of the African-American Museum of history and culture at the Smithsonian. And we did one short, one day of filming to represent Hurricane Katrina in this series of different shorts. And I don’t know, I think maybe she was [singling] me out that day because like literally a couple of weeks later I got –, I got the offer for Wrinkle.

Just talking to her about it and her passion and her vision, knowing that she’d cast Storm and you know how, she wanted to tell this story [and] it was a no-brainer to me.  I really wanted to be a part of this game changing moment really in the industry. I could feel that this, the way that she was going to cast this film, the fact that it’s historically significant that she’s even directing this film as a woman of color. And for me I wanted to be a part of that girl gang. I wanted to be celebrating what this means culturally.

Gugu expresses on what it was like to play the role of a mom for the first time

I’ve never played a mom before. I don’t have kids. You know when Ava first approached me to play the mom in this I was kind of like, oh are you sure? I don’t know if I can pull this off you know. And then I saw a picture of Storm and I was like, oh my gosh, look at that, look at her. You know I saw myself in her. And I think you know it was really not lost on me that you know growing up I loved the never ending story and the Wizard of Oz and all of those incredible fantastical adventures.

I didn’t have anybody who looked like myself and Storm as the heroine in those kind of movies when I was young. There was sort of a special sort of cultural significance for me to sort of be ushering in the next generation in that way. I don’t get to go to all the fantastical lands that Storm and Derek get to go to in the story. So I sort of really felt like my job was to ground their domestic reality… to create that warm, solid family unit that everyone was so desperate to return to.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop – MomStart.com

Gugu expresses what young children will learn from A Wrinkle In Time

I think some of the themes are actually very similar for me and what I’m drawn to you know the idea of finding your voice. I think the idea that who you are is enough is something that I really you know respond to in this story especially you know Storm’s character growing up being bullied at school, being uncomfortable in her own skin, not sure where she fits. You know those are definitely themes that were in Belle and in beyond the lights and in many stories that I’m attracted to.

The idea of being authentic to who you are that you don’t have to find validation from your career or from the music industry, from any external forces. I think that you have all the potential inside of you. And that’s something I think I would love young people to feel and learn and understand.

Gugu’s favorite line in the film

I think Oprah has the line ‘all you have to do is find the right frequency and be who you are‘. And I was like, that’s the key to life, isn’t it? Just find the right frequency. Find your tribe. Find your purpose. Find the thing that sets you alight and your frequency, your vibe and then just do that, do you, be authentic.

I was like that’s genius. There’s so many pearls of wisdom in this film — but I kind of love that that there’s sort of pop culture references as well as these sort of historical stages, so yeah.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop – MomStart.com

Gugu confesses that she wasn’t always an avid book reader

Growing up I actually struggled with reading. I didn’t enjoy reading a school actually. I found it really challenging. I remember [with] my mom, whenever it was time to practice reading my homework I would always make an excuse. And she would say ‘oh here comes the theatrics‘ because I would pretend to do something or I’d would pretend –I would start acting basically because I wanted to sort of put off my reading homework. And sort of ironically now reading is a huge part of my job and reading scripts.

I’m so glad that my mom persevered with me because I was really hard –, I was a really hard person to teach to read. And I found it just such a chore. I’m glad now and I empathize with anybody that struggles with reading. I didn’t grow up with a Wrinkle In Time [novel] either so I got to read it for the first time as an adult on this process.

What Gugu would tell her 12 yr old self if she could?

I guess just to keep being you. You know I sort of –, I was quite an exuberant 8 to 12[year old]. I’m trying to really picture myself at that age. [I’d tell myself] that’s okay to work hard. I think I was quite nerdy at school and  I used to get teased for constantly putting my hand up and being a teacher’s pet or a nerd or a geek; all of those things that are not cool.

I mean it didn’t stop me. But I think maybe I would like some reassurance that being a nerd is cool and actually nerds are the most interesting people outside of high school. Just keep doing what you love.

Photo Credit: Louise Bishop – MomStart.com

See more of Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dr.Kate Murry in A Wrinkle In Time!

From visionary director Ava DuVernay comes Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” an epic adventure based on Madeleine L’Engle’s timeless classic which takes audiences across dimensions of time and space, examining the nature of darkness versus light and, ultimately, the triumph of love. Through one girl’s transformative journey led by three celestial guides, we discover that strength comes from embracing one’s individuality and that the best way to triumph over fear is to travel by one’s own light

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“A WRINKLE IN TIME” opens in U.S. theaters on March 9.

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