Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Marta Milans from Shazam!

Marta Milans stars as Rosa Vasquez in Warner Bros. Shazam!. Adapted from the popular DC Comics, Shazam! tells the story of streetwise foster child, Billy Batson, who has the ability to transform himself into an adult superhero by shouting one word: SHAZAM!

Marta’s character, Rosa, is Billy’s foster mom, who, along with the rest of her family, teaches Billy how to love. Pop Culturalist caught up with Marta to chat about the project, how it’s spreading a message about diversity and representation, and how there’s a superhero in each one of us.

PC: Tell us about your character in Shazam! What drew you to this project?
Marta: Rosa is a wonderful, heartwarming character. She’s the foster mom of Shazam and all the other kids. While she’s not technically the superhero, she definitely is one.

There’s no way you can say no to something like that or being a part of the Warner Brothers family or the DC Universe. It’s the first movie in which a kid becomes a superhero. It’s not only a film for kids, but it also stars kids, which is unique. It was the extra cherry on top.

PC: What was the preparation like bringing Rosa to life in this live-action adaptation?
Marta: I come from an incredibly blessed, loving family. My mom is a superhero in many ways. I just had to learn from her and get a few pointers here and there. Also, my family has always been involved with charity work that involves kids. My mom has always entertained the possibility of adoption. Then, eventually things happened and that didn’t turn out that way, but it was always a theme in our family. We were really involved with this nun’s house in Madrid, Spain, where I grew up. We couldn’t foster because they didn’t live with us, but over the years, we would help them with a lot of their studies and their classroom upbringing.

I reached out to them during this whole process to be like, “Hey guys, can you believe it? I ended up getting the role of a foster mom in a superhero movie. How cool is that?” I asked them for advice, and they were like, “What, Marta? You are already that. You don’t need to prepare anything.” It was just beautiful how it came to be. I got this role in a movie in this genre, and my character is the heartwarming connecting piece of the film. Shazam! has all the fun, action, and superhero-y things that you’d expect to see in a movie of this category, but what you don’t expect to see is the other side of it—how throughout the film, my character and my husband’s character, Cooper Andrews, who plays Victor, bring all these kids together. We bring Billy into our home, where he finally finds love. He’s been running from foster home to foster home and doesn’t believe in family until he sees all the kids that we foster who come from all different walks of life, all ethnicities, and backgrounds.

For all those kids out there in the world, no matter where they come from, no matter what religion or what ethnicity they are, they will be able to relate to that and feel represented. They’ll be like, “Oh my god, there’s a superhero movie that actually is telling our story as well.” It’s groundbreaking and I’m excited to see what impact it’ll have on audiences around the world.

PC: Was there any pressure given how dedicated the fan base is for this particular comic?
Marta: Yeah, of course there’s pressure, are you kidding? All of a sudden you see all this fan art on Instagram, all these people using your face, your photo next to the comic book photo itself. I got lucky because I really look a lot like my comic character, but obviously what I wanted to do incessantly was make sure that I prepared myself on the history of the character as much as I could. Because Shazam!, the movie itself, is based on the new universe, new DC 52, I had to get well versed into all of that. I grew up on Batman and Superman, but I wasn’t quite versed in many others. I wanted to make sure that I paid respect to the fans and audience.

PC: How challenging is it to make Rosa your own but also remain faithful to the source material?
Marta: Well, I was, again I’m telling you, I was so blessed. I continue to be so blessed because I don’t think she’s very different from me. I don’t have children myself, but I came from a big family in Spain. I have a lot of cousins and have been babysitting all my life. I really gravitate towards kids, even now with the charity work that I do. I feel at home and at peace in those environments, so I didn’t really have to go out of my way to transmit that on camera. We spent a lot of time in Toronto before we started filming and tried to spend as much time as we could with the kids before we had to start.

I organized a bunch of activities from escape rooms to waffle and pancake sessions at home. We also watched Moana and Frozen and all those things. I do believe that as much as we’re actors, you can’t fake familiarity on screen, so I was really adamant about making sure that we had a connection before we went to work. In a matter of a couple of days, I went from Rosa to Mama Rosa. To this day, I will always be Mama Rosa to them.

It’s funny because the first day that we got to work on set, they were all running around saying, “Mama Rosa, can you hold me up? Can you take a photo with me?” One of the producers even asked how it all happened. You’ll see those relationships come across in all the scenes where we are a family. You’ll see that loving environment that the kids feel safe in, which is all that matters to Rosa. I hope when you see the film, you feel the same way.

PC: There’s been an influx of superhero movies in the past few years. How does Shazam! differentiate itself?
Marta: I think it differentiates itself for many reasons, but primarily it is, at least in my opinion, it’s the first superhero film that is not only for kids, but is by kids themselves. The superhero also happens to be a kid. He’s a fourteen-year-old kid that gets powers from this wizard and then becomes Shazam. On the inside, though, he’s still that fourteen-year-old kid that keeps coming back to my home and keeps trying to figure out how to pee in his costume because he doesn’t know how to get out, or reverts to being a kid until he changes by saying the word “Shazam”—but all of that really makes it stand out because he’s not some alien from another planet or someone super powerful. It’s just a child that happened to get super powers.

All he wants to do is hang out with the other kids in and out of school, so that in itself is very unique. Secondly, which I think is even more important, because of the fact that I have created this foster family for all these kids that come from all different walks of life, different backgrounds, different ethnicities, etc., and they are all unwanted kids, right? They are orphans for one reason or another and they find a home in my home. So, for all those kids all over the world that feel like they don’t belong, that feel they are unloved, that feel like they are judged for who they are or what race they are or what religion they are or what sexual orientation they are, whatever it is, to be included in a superhero movie of this category and be portrayed like that and be like, “Listen, there’s room for you too and there’s space for you too to feel loved and not feel judged and to feel understood and empowered,” that in itself, the message that it brings to the world, I think, is groundbreaking.

Photo Credit: Warner Bros.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Marta: Scandal! I was completely obsessed with Mr. President Tony Goldwyn and I continue to be. If I ever find him on the street, I will probably kidnap him, which is probably not a good thing. [laughs]

I just recently finished watching this wonderful show, though I wouldn’t really call it a guilty pleasure. It was just an amazing show called Russian Doll, which takes place in New York. I consider myself a New Yorker and I’ve been living there for the past fifteen years. I spend a lot of time in L.A. now, so I really miss New York when I’m away. I miss walking around the city at night and taking the subway and riding my bike everywhere. That show really made me miss New York a lot.

Also, I really suggest, if you haven’t watched it yet, Money Heist on Netflix. It’s a Spanish show, actually. It’s become the most successful Netflix show not in English in the world. It’s this fast-paced bank heist super-action-thriller, and I became obsessed with it. I just wrapped a TV show for the same creator in Spain, and I’m excited about that. I’m excited for the world to see it as well. I think it will be on Netflix USA soon; it just premiered in Europe.

PC: Guilty pleasure movie?
Marta: I don’t know if it’s a guilty pleasure, but Ghost is one movie that I keep going back and watching. I just loved it. It’s this love story that transcends time. Every time I see it, I’m like, “Oh, I wanna be Patrick’s wife, I want to marry him.”

PC: Favorite book?
Marta: Well, I’ve loved Matilda by Roald Dahl since I was very little. The reason why I say this is because I’ve been an avid reader all my life, but that was the first book that I remember reading. My mom got it for me because I was sick and was not going to school. I read it in one night. I didn’t sleep—I would do that all the time. That’s why I’m so blind! I have to wear contacts because of reading in the dark for years. I finished it at like four a.m. and my mom walked in and said, “What is happening?” I was crying and crying. She said, “Why are you crying?” and I said, “Because I know how the story ends. I’ll never be able to read it again not knowing what happens.” My mom was like, “Okay, that’s weird.” [laughs]

It happened again with One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, after that. Lately, the last one that I completely recommend is called A Little Life. It’s set in New York, but ultimately the theme that it tackles is depression and how it really guides you. Thank god I’m mentally healthy most of the time, but I’m always trying to understand mental health and really dive into people that struggle with it, and this book really paints that picture so well. It’s truly inspiring and a wonderful story.

PC: A favorite play or musical?
Marta: Well, musical, West Side Story, because I want to live in America. [laughs] I ended up doing that! As far as plays, I love everything by Stephen Adly Guirgis, from Motherfucker with the Hat to The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Recently, I was rereading a play called Red by John Logan that I saw in London with Alfred Molina, who is absolutely brilliant. That play is heartbreaking and stunning. I graduated in art history, so I always gravitate to plays that have to do with art. Also, I love anything by my dear friend, Tanya Saracho. I did a play for her at Second Stage in New York called Mala Hierba. She’s done a lot of hilarious dark comedy plays as well. She’s hilarious and incredibly talented.

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Marta: Mecano

PC: If you could have a superpower, what would it be and why?
Marta: It would be the power to heal. To heal people that you love and people that are in pain. That would be an awesome superpower to have.

To keep with Marta, follow her on Twitter and Instagram, and catch Shazam! in theaters on April 5.

Photo Credit: Sergio Lardiez