I fell in love with Adrianna while watching the film. “Black Adam” is so full of superheroes, anti-heroes, and larger-than-life monsters, but she’s just a mother trying to protect her family and her country.
Sarah Shahi: I’m a single mom myself, I was raised by a single mom. In my opinion, all mothers are true superheroes.
Absolutely.
So it was such a privilege for me to play Adrianna. She has no supernatural abilities. She is a mother, her superpower is her heart. And of course the love for her home country. She works as an archaeologist, she knows the mysteries of her country and she wants to fight for her ideals, for her idea of how her country could be. It’s an honor, the “ordinary person” who fights for change, who fights resistance. I’m Persian, I couldn’t sleep well at night right now if I didn’t draw attention to the women and men in Iran who are fighting for change. And I think it’s nice that I’m allowed to play a woman who has some parallels in this respect.
Right at the beginning of the film, when Adrianna is in the big cave, she even reminds of a character from “Tomb Raider”. She looks like a Lara Croft too.
She does, absolutely. When Jaume Collet-Serra, the film’s director, and I talked about the character, we considered what our goals were for her. Playing someone who is just tough and strong is pretty boring. So we said yeah, she’s all that, she’s Lara Croft mixed with Indiana Jones. But she is also Black Adam’s sole reference person. There are scenes where we see their compassion, their vulnerability, their empathy. Being a mother plays a big part in that. I myself have three children and I know that being brave doesn’t mean not being afraid, but being afraid and acting anyway. That was the motto we wanted to draw them by.