It’s not often that a Zoom interview turns into a Zoom audition, but that’s exactly what “American Fiction” star Erika Alexander did while speaking with TheWrap about her award-nominated performance in Cord Jefferson’s new feature.
Alexander revealed she’s already dreaming up where her career could take her next — and she has her eyes set on Wakanda. Ryan Coogler’s Marvel franchise “Black Panther” has her name written all over it, and the actress said she hopes to play the sister of Angela Bassett’s late Queen Ramonda. She even broke out the accent and gave TheWrap a preview of how she’d spin the role.
“I want to audition for that role right now. I’m just going to do it right now,” Alexander said, pitching herself for the project. “‘I am the sister of Angie Bassett and I am coming now to change things and tell them that there’s a new sheriff in town. A new sheriff in town.’
“I’ve been waiting this whole time to make sure that they knew, that they knew to hire me for the next ‘Black Panther,’” she continued. “I love it. You didn’t know you were going to get an audition today, did you? I want to be the new queen of Wakanda.”
The impromptu audition came while Alexander praised Coogler’s “Black Panther” for reinvigorating Black audiences’ sense of culture and community.
“We had to get ‘Black Panther’ to remind us that. People said it in school and they said, ‘Oh, you’re a queen,’ but they had not seen it, really, in front of their face,” Alexander said. “So we needed Chadwick Boseman and Stan Lee and the great [comic book artist] Jack Kirby. Also [‘Black Panther’ writer] Christopher Priest, who was the man who made it cool. We needed all those people to come so we could see the Black Panther we see now and have a conversation about Angie Bassett and all that.”
After her quick Zoom audition, the actress said she’d “been working on that accent since ‘Law & Order,’” on which she first appeared as an early career highlight in 1990. The Wakandan voice we know today is an accent and language called Xhosa that originates from South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Looking elsewhere to other projects her career could take her to, Alexander shared that there’s another “panther” universe she’d like to be part of — one that would show off her comedy skills.
“I would love to be the Black ‘Pink Panther,’” she said. “I love what Peter Sellers did with that role. I have comedy chops that I have not been able to use. Maybe a sketch comedy show — I’ll do something and really start to use those muscles. There are many things I’d like to do. I would love to do those things that Crawford and Bette Davis did. They did these really great roles, especially in their middle age. And I’m able to do it. So yeah, those are a few things. But not before I do ‘Black Panther.’”
So far, there’s no confirmation on whether or not there will be a “Black Panther 3.” In the last sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Queen Ramonda — mother of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) — died during Namor’s (Tenoch Huerta) attack on Wakanda. The story ended with M’Baku (Winston Duke) assuming the throne as king of Wakanda and T’Challa’s younger sister Shuri becoming the new Black Panther. However, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) reveals she’s mothered T’Challa’s son in the film’s final scenes.
In the meantime, Alexander is doing a victory lap for her performance as Coraline in “American Fiction,” plays Barb in the Starz comedy series “Run the World” and is producing a documentary centered on legendary actress Diahann Carroll called “Between Starshine and Clay: The Hidden Diary of Diahann Carroll” via her own Color Farm Media. Serena Williams, Venus Williams and their sister Isha Price have signed on as executive producers.
