GO WITH THE FLO Florence Kasumba has made a big impact with her fighting skills as much as her acting talent. But, as she tells Jane Cornwell, she cut her teeth as a triple threat in stage musicals.

ith a single line, “Move,” she orders, as Chadwick Marvel comic books? Would she Florence, 41, is back from training Florence Kasumba Boseman’s King T’Challa, aka Black therefore assume a larger role in the at her favourite martial-arts dojo, walked onto the set of Panther, looks on, bemused. “Or you long-awaited flick Black Panther? practicing bad-ass skills that, more W superhero blockbuster will be moved.” And how did Florence Kasumba – than ever, help keep her grounded. : Civil War and stole Fans of the 2016 Marvel movie lit who is Ugandan/German – acquire But while the buzz around her is an entire scene. Who could forget the up the internet. Who, they asked, was such heroic screen presence? growing louder, the attention she impact made by this statuesque beauty this impeccably dressed bodyguard, “That line certainly caused a stir,” gets from fans, she says, is inevitably with the shaved pate, cut-glass credited simply as Security Chief? laughs the married mother-of-two, good-natured. cheekbones and take-no-prisoners Was she a member of the , sitting at home in Charlottenburg, an “People will say the line [“Move, glare, when she confronts Scarlett the squad of elite warrior women who upmarket area in the west of Berlin. or you will be moved”] to me when Johansson’s Black Widow for simply protect Wakanda, the fictional It’s a warm day; birdsong is tumbling I’m walking along Kurfürstendamm” standing in the king’s way? African nation appearing in several through an open window. – a nearby fashion-forward shopping Images Getty by Photography

sl • 8 Wonder Woman, and reprising her offered roles that previously we weren’t “Since then I’ve always noticed security-chief role in director Ryan allowed to play,” says this rising global how many Australian performers are Coogler’s barrier-breaking box office star, whose cruel but fabulous Wicked in musicals, and how talented they smash Black Panther. This time around Witch of the East – a wind-blown always are,” says Florence, whose she had a name, Ayo, and – as a core vision in flowing red gown and black- German stage musical credits include member of the aforementioned Dora feathered cape – was a highlight of the virtually every classic production Milaje – a narrative arc. Alongside 2017 US TV series Emerald City. She going: West Side Story, Beauty and actors Lupita Nyong’o and Danai also briefly popped up again as Ayo the Beast, Evita, Cats, Chicago, Chess, Gurira, she showed off her acting and in Avengers: Infinity War, currently in and indeed, Shenzi in fighting skills, very often at the same cinemas in Australia; if there’s a Black (for which she auditioned four days time, striking a blow for women of Panther II, and there probably will be, after giving birth). colour along the way. Ayo may even get a plotline and She played the title role in the “This is an amazing time to be backstory of her own. German version of the Elton John an actress,” says Florence, a nurse’s “I’ve just been in Budapest filming a musical Aida and the key role of Lisa daughter who was born in Kampala, German TV series [the long-running in her home country’s production of Uganda, during the years of Idi Alarm Für Cobra 11] where I play an Mamma Mia. All that simultaneous Amin’s dictatorship, grew up in Essen FBI agent,” she adds. “It was a role fighting, moving and acting she does in West Germany, and studied acting, originally written for a man, but they in Black Panther? Musicals made such singing and dancing in Holland. thought, ‘Oh, Florence could do this, multitasking second nature. “More women are speaking out she knows how to fight.’ This sort of “What matters to me is the and showing their strength and all thing makes me very happy.” character and the script,” she says. sorts of possibilities are opening up. Fluent in three languages, Florence “For me the main difference between When I was filming Black Panther, can do sweet as well as scary, funny musicals and film is the preparation. for example, I really had this sense of as well as feisty. She can perform her You can rehearse for up to three ‘Wow, my look is finally okay.’ No one own stunts and she can sing and months before a musical’s premiere; is wanting me to wear a wig because it dance. Forthcoming roles will show on film shoots you meet on the set, makes me less intimidating” – she off her range, from Hippolyta in a discuss what you’re going to do and keeps her hair cropped out of choice – modernist retelling of Shakespeare’s then film it. “as this was what was required to play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by British “With Black Panther, however, we the character.” director Sacha Bennett, to voicing the were shooting for five months. Not Berlin, of course, is a long way hyena Shenzi in Disney’s live-action just going in and acting. There was from Hollywood, where social media version of The Lion King, out in 2019, a lot of training. campaigns such as #OscarsSoWhite alongside Beyoncé, Seth Rogen and “Me and Lupita and Danai would have forced directors and producers to Donald Glover. show up at eight in the morning revisit the issue of representation of With this latter role, Florence has and start running and crawling diversity on screen. come full circle. Musicals are where on stuff and rolling on top of each Black Panther’s nearly all-black cast she cut her teeth, and in many ways other. And though it was hard, is unprecedented for a big “tent pole” where her heart still belongs. being in the trenches together street, Berlin’s answer to the Champs- movie (her fellow cast members, It was seeing Andrew Lloyd made us like family. Élysées – “but it always comes with a Hobbit actors Martin Freeman and Webber’s Starlight Express as a 12-year- “Then there was the story we big smile, and always makes me laugh. Andy Serkis, have joked that they’re old (possibly in Bochum, near Essen, were telling,” she continues. It shows me that people love what I the “Tolkien white guys”). where the smash musical has run since “Knowing that you are making did in the movie.” While Florence fully embraces the it opened in 1988), that made her want something people haven’t seen Not just that movie. While she’s responsibility that comes with being to be an actor. And not just any actor before has a big impact on you as been a familiar presence on German a black female role model, she points but a well-rounded one; as a teenager an actor. On the other hand, who stage and screen since the mid-2000s, out that her experiences have been she played tenor sax in a marching doesn’t love a superhero? Who Florence reinforced her international vastly different to those of her band, and sang along to the 1992 hasn’t dreamed, as a child, of next-big-thing reputation by playing African-American colleagues. soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar, saving the world as a superhero?” Senator Acantha, an Amazonian “But I’m so grateful that women whose all-Australian cast included Florence had us at “Move”. Right

Photography by Getty Images Getty by Photography politician, in 2017’s feminist opus of colour, that all women, are being Kate Ceberano and John Farnham. now her superpowers feel limitless. • sl • 8 sl • 9