WITH HER MARVEL AND BOND ROLES, LASHANA LYNCH HAS BECOME A REVELATORY ACTION-HERO. NOW, WITH THE WOMAN KING, SHE’S SET TO PUSH THINGS EVEN FURTHER. IT’S TIME TO SMASH THE CEILING, SHE SAYS

WORDS HANNA FLINT

Lashana Lynch, photographed exclusively for Empire in London on 3 August 2022.

PHOTOGRAPHY ZOË MCCONNELL

SHE’S TAKEN ON MULTIVERSES, STOLEN 007’S THUNDER AND PROTECTED KINGDOMS. FOR NOW, THOUGH, LASHANA LYNCH IS ON THE SOFA.

In a rare moment of rest, the currently copper-haired British-Jamaican actor, who on screen seems to never stop moving, is taking a breather, speaking to Empire from her London home. It’s not what we’re used to, having been accustomed to a more kinetic Lynch, from her breakthrough role in Captain Marvel to her thrilling turn as an MI6 agent to match James Bond himself in No Time To Die. Let alone that appearance in Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. Each time, she’s eaten up that screen.

Getting here has been, well, a journey. “When you come from a working-class background, you’re grinding and grinding and grinding, and the things that make sense at the time paint a picture,” she says. “[My] picture is eclectic.”

That it is. Lynch paid her dues in TV, appearing in the likes of The Bill, Silent Witness and Doctors, and in film, played a champion sprinter opposite Lily James in her 2012 debut Fast Girls, and House Capulet heiress Rosaline in 2017’s Shonda-Rhimes-produced series Still Star-Crossed. By 2019, she not only had that first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie under her belt — as Captain Marvel’s pilot BFF Maria Rambeau — but earned the title of 007 in No Time To Die. Lynch was the first Black woman to carry that cryptonym, and made it look damn good. And all the while, she has been scoring acclaim in powerful stage productions like debbie tucker green’s 2018 play ear for eye.

Now, she’s starring in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s West African, 19th-century epic The Woman King, playing Izogie, a warrior lieutenant in an all-female military unit lead by Viola Davis’ General Nanisca. After that, she’s Miss Honey in the big-screen adaptation of Matilda — The Musical. With both, Lynch tells us she is raring to challenge herself — and our expectations of Black womanhood — even further.

You’ve been playing some spectacularly physical roles of late. Do you feel like your parts in Captain Marvel, No Time To Die and The Woman King have moulded you into an action star?

The wonderful things that I drew into my path have really determined where I needed to be in the moment. I could never have done The Woman King seven years ago. My body wasn’t ready. I’m not sure I was mentally ready to take on what I have to in this film. My CV so far is indicative of the kind of career I wanted. Little bites of things that I have manifested in the right time. I wanted to tell the story of Captain Marvel, and how I had been auditioning for [Marvel] for many years, so that young people can see that it didn’t come overnight.