The Big Sick star plays Kamala Khan’s tough but loving mom, Muneeba.
There are plenty of parental figures and found families in theMarvel Cinematic Universe, butMs.
Marvelalso devotes plenty of screen time to the more mundane moments between Kamala and her Pakistani American family.
Zenobia Shroff and Mohan Kapur in ‘Ms. Marvel’.Daniel McFadden/Marvel Studios
“So many parents have written to me to say, ‘Thank you.
Thank you for showing how I am with my kids.
My kids just love it,'” Shroff says.
“That’s the whole point.
It’s okay to dream.'”
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What did you connect with most about Kamala’s story andMs.
And now is our time.
It was unheard of when I was pounding the pavement.
I love the relationship between Kamala and Muneeba.
It can be complicated at times, but there’s so much love there.
What interested you the most about their mother-daughter bond?
It’s a relationship like any other.
There’s not just the superpower angle.
Can I do this?
And [Muneeba] is saying no.
I should mention that Kamala is my 14th South Asian child.
[Laughs] I have played 14 South Asian mothers before this.
I’m the go-to, like, “We need a South Asian mother.
There are other aspects that Muneeba is trying to protect her from.
Iman Vellani is so extraordinary in this role.
What was it like working with her as your onscreen daughter?
She just found this role off of WhatsApp, and she’s this kid from Markham, Ontario.
But Iman is a Marvel head, so she’s just perfect for Kamala Khan.
I think she hit the ground running.
It was her film school, her acting school, her etiquette school.
But she was a total natural.
She was always there for me.
That was really impressive for this young girl who had never done this before.
She was completely present for me.
You mentioned how groundbreaking it feels to have this Pakistani American family depicted in a big Marvel TV show.
What does it mean to you to see this kind of loving, quirky family on screen?
The point is that there’s such deeply entrenched hate.
Our children are late for school, and we are driving them for driving tests that they fail.
I just hope that people see the normalcy of it all and the ordinariness.
We’re just like anybody else.
We happen to be Muslim, but we are neighbors.
We’re part of the fabric of America, and the time has come to accept us as such.
Was there anything about joining this show that surprised you?
Then suddenly you are in this thing where you’re watching your kid [be a superhero].
[Laughs] But I will say, you get caught up in the magic of it.
You start believing, and you go with the suspension of disbelief.
I’m surprised at myself and how I’m really enjoying saying these lines and believing them.
Mohan Kapur is so great as Muneeba’s husband, Yusuf.
What can you tell us about working with him?
I remember the first time I met him.
I said, “Hello,” and I knew in that moment we would be friends.
Mohan and I both grew up in South Bombay, on two opposite sides of the same bridge.
So our shorthand and our baseline understanding of each other is so strong.
He had never worked in Hollywood before, so he was very excited.
I love the scenes of Aamir’s wedding in the third episode.
There’s that amazing dance sequence with you and all the different members of the family.
What do you remember most about filming that?
That dance was amazing because we were so many of us in this ballroom, with all the choreographers.
I’ve been a dancer since I was 11 years old, and my mom had me dance.
It was a long day, as they all are.
When you think back to filming, what was your most memorable day on set?
So my head space was constantly with her in Mumbai, while I was in Atlanta.
Does that make sense?
It became very meta.
There were layers with that.
The whole experience in my head was all about this mother-daughter stuff.
So you do what actors do, and you take everything, and you give it at action.
It was tough, but art always saves the artist, in a way.
So I’m glad I had this work.
I’m so grateful that I had this work so I could put all my emotion somewhere.
