TV

Talking About Being The Boss Of All Time With Gugu Mbatha-Raw From ‘Loki’

"I love the fact that she's powerful. She's a judge. She has an authority about her. She's no damsel in distress or best friend character. She rules the TVA."

by Merryana Salem  1 July 2021
Loki

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The new Disney+ vehicle Loki has a long list of mysteries to be unravelled, and included among them is the character of Ravonna Renslayer, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Mbatha Raw’s body of works may appear at first glance to be as chaotic as the God of Mischief himself. It’s a portfolio spanning intense contemporary characters like in Netflix’s Easy, and Apple TV’s The Morning Show, to intimate sci-fi like her Emmy award-winning episode of Black Mirror‘s ‘San Junipero’, the intergenerational superhero drama Fast Colour, and nuanced empowering period pieces like Belle and Misbehaviour.

What links such a vibrant filmography is Mbatha-Raw’s dedication to lending her talents to portraying complex women and an equal dedication to working with them. Loki, helmed by director Kate Herron, is no exception. Disney+’s latest sashay into the series format centres on Thor’s mischievous younger brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his time-meddling misadventures with the Time Variance Authority (TVA).

The series picks up where Avengers: Endgame left Loki, which to be exact, sees him stealing an Infinity Stone and escaping the Avengers through a time tunnel, only to crash land in ancient Mongolia. There, he is promptly arrested by Hunters from the TVA and put on trial for deviating from his timeline and other crimes against time. The judge in Loki’s trial, wielding power over all the operations in the TVA, is the honourable Ravonna Renslayer, played by none other than Miss Gugu Mbatha-Raw- who I was blessed to have a chat with a few weeks ago.

“The way the character of Renslayer was described to me by our director Kate Herron was really intriguing.” Even over a zoom call, her grin and excitement over the character is unmistakable. “Renslayer has worked her way up from being a Hunter and now she’s this hugely high-status character and she calls the shots. I love the fact that she’s powerful. She’s a judge. She has an authority about her. She’s no damsel in distress or best friend character. She rules the TVA.”

As a high ranking judge, presiding over all the variants and agents in the TVA, it would be easy to label Ravonna Renslayer a girlboss and move on. However, the judge of all reality and miscreants has a possibly time-altering soft spot for Agent Mobius, played by Owen Wilson. “They’re really old friends. They can call each other out on their tricks. But she’s Mobius’ boss,” she explains. “It’s that fun dynamic you can have where they’re obviously very fond of each other, but at the end of the day she’s got a job to do.” Mbatha-Raw smiles, “That’s where the fun lies. In the confines of her office, she’s a little more relaxed with him because he knows her so well.” Of her co-star, Owen Wilson, Mbatha-Raw has nothing but praise. “Owen is such a gifted actor in improv and comedy. So, he made all of that very easy.”

The mysteries behind the inner workings of the TVA are still unfolding, but their reach as a Kafkaesque bureaucracy ensuring reality adheres to a ‘sacred timeline’ boasts a more absurd blend of sci-fi and fantasy than we’re used to seeing in the MCU. Either way, Loki sees another notch added to Mbatha-Raw’s sci-fi belt. “I love the escapism of Sci-fi,” she admits. “There’s such value in escapism. Especially, with what’s been going on lately.” As both a sci-fi nerd and a longtime fan of her work, I couldn’t resist asking Mbatha-Raw what she’s loved about the science fiction projects she’s worked on, including Loki.

“They’ve all provided me with really cool opportunities. Either with unique storytelling, or really interesting leading roles, and strong complex characters. You could be so many things the ‘realism’ or the real world”, she rolls her eyes, framing ‘realism’ in air quotes, “wouldn’t allow you to be. Or culture wouldn’t buy you as playing.”

As one of Britain’s most critically acclaimed Black actors, it’s no mystery why Gugu Mbatha-Raw would appreciate a genre where she’s less likely to be typecast. “I think there’s a lot more freedom in sci-fi in terms of casting,” she says. “There are epic, high stakes, imaginative worlds to inhabit. It’s really fun and refreshing.”

Like many of Mbatha-Raw’s past projects, Loki is directed by a woman, Netflix’s Sex Education director, Kate Herron. Working with women directors is another thread linking her dynamic filmography and Mbatha-Raw has immense respect for all the women she has worked with. “All the female directors I’ve worked with have been so different in their own right. At this point, I’ve worked with so many, I don’t really consider them female directors, they’re just directors.” Herron, according to Gugu, is nothing short of a force to be reckoned with. “She’s created a whole new world in the MCU. This whole show is her vision. She’s directed all six episodes like one huge movie,” she says. “She’s so great with the eccentric British sense of humour that is part of this show as well. I’m really excited to see what she does next.”

Of course, she can’t tell me too much. Marvel actors are famously sworn to secrecy, but when I ask Gugu what she hopes viewers will take away from meeting Ravonna Renslayer, she just giggles. “I’m curious to see what people will take away from her too,” she teases. “I just think it’s really fun to have another powerful woman in the MCU.”

You can catch Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Ravonna Renslayer in Loki, streaming every Wednesday on Disney Plus.

Merryana Salem (she/they) is a proud Wonnarua and Lebanese–Australian writer, critic, teacher and podcaster on most social media as @akajustmerry. If you want, check out their podcast, GayV Club where they gush about LGBTIQ rep in media. Either way, she hopes you ate something nice today.