Grace Caroline Currey on Shazam 2 and manifesting a romantic drama role

Shazam 2–official title Shazam! Fury of the Gods–has hit theaters! Fans of the franchise now have an opportunity to catch up with the family of superheroes that came into their powers at quite a young age after their foster brother, Billy, was endowed with tremendous abilities that he chose to share with his siblings at the tail end of the first movie.

Ahead of the film’s release, I sat down with one of the stars of Shazam 2, Grace Caroline Currey, who plays Mary in both her human form and her Superhero form this time around. We talked about Mary’s journey as the oldest of the bunch, Billy’s insistence that the team stay together, what it was like pulling double duty on set, Currey’s desire to star in a romantic period drama and more!

Grace Caroline Currey on Shazam 2 and wanting a romantic drama role

*The transcript below has been edited for clarity and time. For the full interview watch the video.

When we meet Mary in the first film she’s thinking about college. She has that great moment where she’s worried about her future with her family and then she becomes a superhero and that goes out the window, so in Shazam 2 is college still a priority or has she moved on and is really focused on being able to save people?

You’re hitting all the underlying deep stuff going on with Mary that’s quietly going on while we’ve got all the action and all the big personalities of the family. She is at this crossroads of–I think she feels a little lost in this one. If you really pay attention to her, she’s a little lost.

She worked for so long to go to her dream college–in the first one which you were talking about–and then got in, reealized that meant leaving the only home she’s ever really known and she’s the glue there. It makes sense to me that she went, “I don’t want to leave my safety, my home, my purpose where I’ve been for so long” on top of getting superpowers which then is a completely new added responsibility in the midst of her being an adult.

[Mary’s] aged out of the foster system. Checks don’t come anymore to feed her or house her so she’s working jobs to make money because superheroes don’t make money. At the same time, her siblings are going, “There’s this we can go do, there are these people we can go save. Drop everything, we’ve got to go.” It’s a noble thing to go save people.

There’s quite a few of them. They could break-up the group and do a couple here and there covering things but Billy has the rule of all or none. And he’s kind of placed this pressure on the whole family that no one can go solo, they are a unit. To that degree, that same pressure is being put on Mary about going to college.

If she was unsure if she was ready to go in the first one, I think now that she’s been home and she’s realizing, “What is my purpose here? I’ve got to grow and go to college,” Billy’s still putting that pressure of “No, we’re a group. You’ve got to stay.”

As the oldest, I would think that she’d feel a responsibility to be able to take care of her siblings but also want to grow. How does she occupy that role in the group? There are so many of them and yet they all have to work together.

She’s the emotional umbrella. When you see [Mary] unplugged from the group, it’s because she’s looking at the group and she’s going, “They’re good. I’m going to study my organic chemistry,” then every once in a while her eyes come up from that book and she’s looking at the dynamics going on, and where the pieces rocked and there isn’t that harmony, she’s the one to sit down and give some tough love. She can really say things sometimes that are a little direct and a little harsh but with the utmost love and care. She definitely occupies the space of resident therapist.

That’s a lot to have to contend with though and still grow into her own person. For you, Grace, it’s not just you embodying a young adult, you also get to be the Superhero form in this film. Was it difficult doing double duty? Did you feel like there was more to be added to Mary’s Superhero form that you didn’t get to do in the first film?

Oh yeah. I spent significantly more time in the suit in this one than I even spent in my civilian, human form. I’m really thankful I got to be in the suit. It was really fun to be able to have more time with the Shazam family because when you’re in the suit there’s so much of Billy saying, “We need to be a group,” and we are a group a lot in this film.

So it was really fun to have the dynamics of how Mary treats her siblings in their adult form and how it’s no different from how she would treat them when they’re kids. She’s just as frustrated, just as disappointed if they’re cheating on homework as an adult. It’s like no no no no, these are my siblings no matter what.

It was a wild time because when you have two different sets of casts, you can have them clock in. You can have your kids go to work in the morning and your adults work at night. The funny thing was I’d be clocking in with the kids and the kids would leave and I’d stay and clock in with the adults. So I got to be with everybody the whole time and kind of live on set.

Do you have a favorite moment from the movie that Mary’s in?

I’m always a really big fan of the moments and the opportunities where I get to show behind the scenes how Mary is and when I say behind the scenes, I mean something bigger is going on in the foreground but then in the background I’m getting to interact with the characters and display her protectiveness, her care, her love, her relationship with the other characters.

I love building that kind of–if you pay attention to it, you can see the dynamics. The dynamics of the characters live and breathe whether they’re the focal point of the scene or not. I love that because that’s the kind of stuff that I pay attention to in a movie and gets me immersed.

I also loved getting to fly in the air and flip around at the dragon that Lucy Liu is on. That was really cool being in the machine that they had me in that closes around your hips while you’re in a harness and you can swivel in it. So I had to be in a flying pose and then whip around to face the dragon.

As far as action movies go, is this a genre you want to live in or is there another one you want to explore in film?

I’ve had a really lovely time doing quite a few different genres and I’d like to continue doing different genres. It’s really fun to be able to go “Okay rom-com tried that, horror tried that, thriller tried that, superhero tried that, action tried that.” But I have wanted to do a period piece. I keep putting that out there. I’d love to do historical whether it’s real life people, or adaptation.

Annabelle: Creation was set in the ‘50s. That was also directed by David Sandberg, our director from Shazam, which was kind of fun. That was a period piece. You know we had costumes and period hair. But I’m talking like Jane Austen. Get me in England, in the countryside. Atonement, you know? Get me in a gorgeous green dress crying over unrequited love. I guess I don’t want a rom-com, I want a rom-drama.