For those who may have missed it, beautiful black man Djimon Hounsou has been cast as “Korath the Pursuer” an alien from the Kree Empire (Read more about that here). Djimon sat down with Collider to talk about his role in Guardians of the Galaxy, diversity and the Black Panther, check it out below:
“The lack of diversity, specifically in genre films and the superheroes our kids grow up watching and emulating, they can’t really identify with,” Hounsou said in an interview with Collider. “When you see the same thing, over and over again, and it seems not to speak of you and your heritage and your culture, it leaves you out of this world, a little bit. It gives a certain social distance with your world. So, it was very shocking when my son said that. It shocked me, but at the same time, it was not a surprise. It’s one of those things that even I have been looking for. I’m looking for a hero of my kind, and I’m looking for a shero of my kind. Now, we have Zoe Saldana, who is a shero for minorities, and that’s kind of nice.”
“I so desperately wanted to do ‘Black Panther’ because I felt like it was time for it,” said Hounsou. “If you look at the world of comic books, Black Panther is one of the characters whose continent and country was always being invaded and he was always trying to defend it. He’s kicked everybody’s ass, really. All those superheroes who have come, at one point in time, to try to invade his country in Africa for minerals, he’s kicked most of their asses. But, that’s part of the story we don’t want to tell yet. I thought it was fun, and that it would be great for my son to see that. He did see it and he said, ‘Papa, that sounds like you! That’s your voice!’ It’s fun.”
Do you agree or disagree with Djimon?
Guardians of the Galaxy will hit theaters August 1, 2014
More as it Breaks!