With just three acting credits to her name, Dominique Thorne has already built an enviable résumé, having made her feature-film debut in Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk, with a follow-up role in the biographical drama Judas and the Black Messiah. In 2020, Thorne officially entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe when she was cast as the teen superhero Riri Williams/Ironheart, making her debut as the character in last year’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sequel. She admits she took time to consider joining a comic book franchise, the idea of which initially challenged what she had envisioned for her career.
“What came out of that reflection was how brilliant of an opportunity it could be to have representation in this way and present the truth of a young Black female experience in this setting, at this scale, with these resources and with these individuals pouring into it,” she says.
Here, the 2023 Black Women in Hollywood honoree shares her journey of opening herself up to all of life’s possibilities.
Tell us in your own words where your journey as a Black woman in Hollywood began.
Dominique Thorne (DT): Whew. I think my journey begins on the streets of Brooklyn Heights with my mom. She was a babysitter in that neighborhood for the majority of my childhood up until I went to college, and I remember the homes of the kids that she used to babysit is where I would be before and after school. And she would always tell me, “Yes, pay attention to the stark contrast between where we are and where you live, but this is a possibility for you too. A life that looks nothing like the one you’re living is also within your reach. It’s just up to you to make that decision and go after it.”So I think me being able to visualize any dream that is being realized now is a product of her opening my mind up in that way.
When did…
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