"The projects I’ve worked on recently have been with filmmakers that I think have something interesting to say," says Thompson, who appeared in Ava DuVernay's Selma and Justin Simien’s Dear White People before joining Ryan Coogler’s Creed opposite Michael B. Jordan.
"I grew up watching movies, and I would make movies with my dad," says Thompson of her upbringing in Los Angeles. "I had a television series produced with my dad that was called Lizard Hunters. Literally we would hike through the Hollywood Hills, and my dad would be shooting the whole time and we would hunt for lizards and I would do a direct address to the camera."
In Creed, Thompson plays Bianca, an aspiring singer and Michael B. Jordan's love interest. "I think that all of the decisions Ryan made about the various things that gave Bianca dimension and nuance had to do with wanting to present a character, down the way that her hair was. You don’t get to see too many representations of ethnic hair onscreen, for example," she says.
Thompson, who is also a singer, worked for two weeks straight for 15 hours a day on the music in the film. "[Composer] Ludwig Goransson and I also had some guest artists come in. We had Donald Glover and an indie artist I really love called Moses Sumney. Other than that, it was basically just us hanging out. We had made 10 songs that we sent to Ryan, and there were four that he felt strongly about that would work in the context of the movie," she says.
"For me, as an actress, I don’t feel comfortable being put in a space where I’m sort of the hot girl in the movie," she tells THR. "If I could do it maybe I would. It was really nice to get to play the romantic lead, but I didn’t have to lead with so many things that women have to, with their beauty and their sex appeal. Those are assets I just don’t feel that comfortable using in my work."