-Our next guest is a talented actress you know from her work
as Kamala Khan on the hit series "Ms. Marvel."
All six episodes are available now on Disney+.
Let's take a look.
-Oh. But no, I've spoken too much already.
No, no, no, I'm not going to talk about this at all.
-Kamala?
-Your mother will get very upset.
-So this belonged to Aisha and you really have no idea
what happened to her? -Oh, beta, speak up a bit.
My old ears are not --
-Kamala.
-Please welcome to the show Iman Vellani, everyone!
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome to the show. -Thank you.
I am particularly very excited about this one
because our producer Sana who was on your Show in like 2016...
-Yes, here's Sana. She's one of the producers of "Ms. Marvel."
And she was here.
And I guess you have watched this interview.
-Oh, yes. It was the first thing I watched after I read
the "Ms. Marvel" comics for the first time.
And I was, like, obsessed with her.
I was like, "How did she get a job at Marvel Comics
and be brown and a woman at the same time?"
-Seems like you'd be happier about it.
You seem really mad about it. -I was so jealous.
[ Laughter ] Me being like 15 years old.
But yeah, I was obsessed with her.
And now six years later I'm here talking about "Ms. Marvel."
And she's here too somewhere. -She is. She's backstage.
It was nice to see her again.
But again, I think this is the part that's so sweet.
So, you obviously you cared about this comic book
and now you're playing Marvel's first Muslim superhero.
And she's a teenager and you're a teenager.
And I can't even imagine -- also you're a comic book fan --
of what this whole process was like, ending up with this part.
-My life is overwhelmingly good right now.
[ Laughter ] -That's good. Live it up.
There's no reason to be shy about it.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Is it true, were you the kind of person who you did
spend your allowance on comic books?
-All $20. -20 bucks?
-Yeah.
-Is that a good allowance these days?
Because I have to start figuring out --
-No, I had to make an Excel spreadsheet
and, like, talk to my parents.
I'm like look, these are my expenses
as a 15-year-old high school kid.
I need comics. I need McDonald's.
I need clothes, I guess? Yeah.
But it was just McDonald's and comics.
-And you were a Marvel kid? -Mm-hmm.
-Is that accurate? -But it was mostly Iron Man.
So I obviously fell in love with the MCU first and then
my high school was right across from a comic book store,
and I was like, "I need more Iron Man."
So I read every "Invincible Iron Man" comic I could get.
And then I ran into Ironheart
'cause I thought she was Iron Man.
That was wrong. And Kamala was on the cover
of one of those comics
and that's when I fell in love with her.
-I mean, I think, it is important, you know, obviously
so special to have this kind of representation in comics.
What was it like the first time you saw "Ms. Marvel"?
-Ah. In person? In the mirror?
[ Laughter ] No, it was crazy.
She felt so different than all the other Muslim teenagers
I was used to seeing in mainstream media.
She was using her culture as something that guided her.
And it wasn't something she neglected at all.
And on top of that she was a huge fan.
And the show is -- The comics
were never about being Muslim or being Pakistani.
It was about this superhero-obsessed dork who just
happens to be Muslim and Pakistani.
And that's how I felt in real life.
And it was really comforting reading those comics.
-Well, it certainly -- I think they ended up
on the right person for the part.
So there's a really cool animation style in this show
as well, outside of the live action,
and it's so visually pleasant and pleasing to watch.
Were you also someone who was drawn to art growing up?
I feel weird say growing up
because I feel like that hasn't finished yet.
[ Laughter ]
-I'm an adult?
[ Laughter ]
No, but I was. I was really into art.
It's funny. During one of our quarantines,
I made a little stop-motion with my Iron Man
and Kamala action figures.
And I sent it to Kevin Feige and our producers with zero context.
It was like literally my action figures dancing or something.
And then they really liked that.
And we ended up changing our episode one opening animation
to be a stop motion instead of like a regular animation.
-So Kevin Feige, who, if anybody follows
the Marvel Cinematic Universe,
this is the man who's pulling the strings.
He's sort of the brain behind it all.
Did you feel nervous when you first met him
or were you right away sending him weird stop-motion animation?
[ Laughter ]
-So I didn't -- I stared at him
until he left the first time I met him.
I like couldn't be a human at all. I lost all function.
-And do you think he left because you were staring at him?
-Possibly. -Possibly, yeah.
-He's really awkward.
And if you're awkward, then it's just a double whammy.
It's terrible, but Sana was like,
"Okay, so he's coming on Wednesday."
It was Monday. And he comes and he's like,
"Hey, Iman, heard you're doing a great job," or whatever.
And I was like --
[ Laughter ]
Stared at him until he left.
And then he came back Wednesday
and I had written this like four-page letter.
The first page was like me gushing over him.
The next three pages were like 70 questions
about the MCU and his life.
And so I gave it to him. And Sana was basically
our mediator throughout this whole conversation.
She's like, "Iman, you have something for Kevin.
Kevin, what do you want to say to Iman?"
[ Laughter ] And it was like really awkward.
And I gave him this letter, and the next day he called me
and like answered the first 40 over Zoom.
So yeah. -Alright.
-I am more comfortable with the man now.
[ Laughter ]
-That is very nice to hear.
It must be so -- I could only imagine.
You've been working for two years on this project.
And now you can finally talk about it with people.
You've known secrets.
You've known plot points that you haven't been able to share.
Has it been rewarding to talk to fans who have responded to it?
-Dude, I can breathe. It's so nice.
I'm like -- I'm not present on social media publicly
but I do have like a lot of private accounts.
Especially on Reddit.
I'm just like arguing with people about theories.
I'm like, "You don't even know what's coming, man.
Like, you're so wrong." It's so liberating.
[ Laughter ]
-So you also had to keep a secret about auditioning
for this in the first place from your friends.
Everyone -- You were planning on going to college, right?
And just put a pause on that. -Yeah.
I was like with my friends.
I was planning rooming together at university.
Little did they know that was not going to happen
'cause I got the part in front of them
and they were like, "What?"
-What could you mean in front of them?
-So it was the last day of high school and we were out
doing stuff and I get this text from Sarah Finn
and she's like, "Hey, can you get on this call?"
And I was like, "No."
And then they were like, "We sent you the link.
Get on right now." And I was like, "Okay."
And I'm in my friend's driveway and they're watching me
from the car and I'm trying to not have a reaction
'cause Kevin Feige's on my phone.
It was just -- My brain was spinning.
And then I get back in the car and they were like,
"So what happened? Did you like win the lottery or something?"
And I was like, "Basically."
[ Laughter ] Yeah.
-And then how did you celebrate?
-Burritos. We got burritos.
-Yeah. Burritos? -Yeah.
-Well, I think that there's no achievement
that that's not the proper celebration for.
-I'd say so.
-What a delight to spend time with you this evening.
Congratulations on everything. -Thank you so much.
-I just met you but I don't think
it could have happened to a nicer person.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You guys, that's Iman Vellani.
All episodes of "Ms. Marvel" are available now on Disney+.
We'll be right back.