At the heart of the Daughters of Atlas’ journey is a righteous mission, and that was another thing that helped her tap into the omnipotent mindset of the goddesses. “I also think that understanding where they came from and what their mission is—that’s important to set the tone,” Liu says. ”There’s something kind of lofty about that, you know? It’s not just for individual satisfaction; it’s for a greater good. Fighting alongside your sisters to avenge your father, I think that’s a very powerful foundation to go off of.”

Mirren agrees. “You know people say, ‘What’s it like to play the villainess?’ But Hespera doesn’t see herself as the villainess, no, no, no! She’s doing what is righteous as far as she’s concerned. And as a god, she has every right to do that.” 

While Mirren and Liu are both cinema stalwarts with expansive careers, their on-screen sister Anthea is played by rising star Rachel Zegler. Only her second film role, Zegler filmed Shazam: Fury of the Gods before her acclaimed star turn in West Side Story had hit screens, making the actress a household name and Golden Globe Award Winner. So how did she approach her godly sophomore outing? “The funny thing is there’s really no guidebook. There’s no ‘How to Play a God for Dummies!’ And I didn’t really know who I was playing while I was auditioning.” 

Despite that classic Hollywood secrecy, Zegler landed the role and got the news that she’d be playing Anthea in a hilarious interaction with her soon-to-be director. “When I got the phone call from David Sandberg, I thought he was my GrubHub delivery driver. I answered after one ring. And he said that’s the fastest anyone’s ever answered the phone.” 

During the earliest days of shooting, Zegler sat down with her co-stars to really dig into how they’d bring the sisters to life, and it was during that conversation that she found her in to Anthea and how she’d exist on screen. “I turned to Helen and asked, ‘Are you just gonna do your accent?’ She said yes, and Lucy was like, ‘I’m going to talk in a bit more of a grandiose style.’  And I thought, okay, so you’ve got like full fledged British royalty in Helen. Then you have Lucy who’s doing a bit more of an emphasis on her voice. I was like, I’m the youngest. I’m not going to change anything. So that was kind of the way that I found her. I thought her speech was going to be really important in the grand scheme of things when it came to being a god.”  

It’s something that shapes Anthea’s interactions not just with her sisters but also with the young members of the Shazamily. “There’s a difference between the way she talks with her sisters and the way she talks with Freddie Freeman,” Zegler says. “I liked that because in real life we code switch all the time. So when I’m talking to my family, it’s very different from the way that I’d talk to David Sandberg. It was fun, but really nothing can prepare you for playing a god.” 

Danofgeek