Mumbai: Actress Letitia Wright, who plays the character of Shuri in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, has revealed that she learned a life skill on the sets of the film during the shoot and preparation.
This handy life skill was of freediving in which one has to go to depth under the water without any breathing equipment.
Discussing their underwater training, Letitia said: “For me, I was not going through as much as Tenoch (Huerta, the anti-hero in the film), but I did get to learn how to freedive from the fantastic team, yeah it’s a great life skill now. It was a really deep tank, we had to go down, hold our breath, look around, I had to do Wakanda forever (hand gesture) and come back up.”
In this latest venture, the Wakandans face the fight of their life against an enemy that has remained hidden from them, Namor and the Talokan nation.
Huerta spoke about Namor’s kingdom and its significance to him. “Talokan is a beautiful place. ‘Tlaloken’ is an Aztec conception of one of their heavens, it’s the heaven of the water, it’s the paradise of the water. Taloken is the Mayan translation. Namor has to protect this kingdom, He has to protect this haven.”
About his own experience, Huerta said: “I didn’t know how to swim before this movie and now I learnt and now I can hold my breath for 5 mins but Mabel (Cadena) in her first immersion, it was 8 minutes. It was a beautiful process and to be down inside that tank it’s a peaceful sensation. It’s like active meditation. You are working of course, You are acting but at the same time it feels so good, like a trip, like a warm blanket you know. That was my sensation of the underwater.”
Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film also stars Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Winston Duke, Dominique Thorne and Danai Gurira.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will drop on Disney+A Hotstar on February 1.
–IANS