Tessa Thompson dominated the weekend box office with “Thor: Ragnarok,” and now comes word that the rising star will be honored at the Napa Valley Film Festival. A press release announced that she’ll receive the JCB Collection Trailblazer Tribute at this year’s Celebrity Tributes presentation. Set to take place November 9, the event’s other honorees include “The Intern” director Nancy Meyers and “Twilight” actress Nikki Reed.
Before she made the leap to Asgardian warrior in the Marvel universe, Thompson was best known for her roles in “Dear White People” and “Creed.” Her other credits include “Westworld,” “Selma,” and “Veronica Mars.”
“Tessa is an actress who has demonstrated in her career the ability to take on unique, dynamic roles that demonstrate her remarkable range and ability to bring her humanity to each performance,” said Marc Lhormer, co-founder of the Napa Valley Film Festival. “As a ‘trailblazer,’ she is the embodiment of someone who is undaunted by taking risks and in doing so, achieves great success.”
“Valkyrie in the comics is … blonde and doesn’t look like me,” Thompson has said of her “Ragnarok” character. “But when a lot of these comics were written, it was in a time before we had conversation about being inclusive. (I like to avoid the word ‘diversity,’ because it annoys me.) It was a time when it made sense to have these women that were fighting and so strong wear these American Apparel bathing suits — which is so funny. My costume design was based on stuff that we see in the comics now — like the traditional sort of Valkyrie armor that I get reunited with in the second half of the film,” she explained. “That appears in the comics and looks very, very similar. But I felt very strongly that we wanted the costume to have some bulk.”
The physical reference for the character was Sarah Connor in the second “Terminator” movie, “which is incredible because she’s in the best shape ever and is just, like, all muscle,” Thompson said. The goal was “to create a character that was not conventionally beautiful. Just sort of messy — the idea was that she just never washes her face, you know? There’s nothing pristine about this woman.”
Thompson’s upcoming roles include sci-fi flick “Annihilation,” which sees her heading on a mysterious expedition, and Nia DaCosta’s “Little Woods,” a modern Western about two sisters co-starring “Cinderella’s” Lily James.
