Teyonah Parris Submitted Marvel Auditions for Years Before WandaVision

Parris also explained she didn’t know she was auditioning for Monica Rambeau until she booked the role!

We’re all well aware of the secrecy involved in making a Marvel project, but not knowing what role you’re auditioning for until you book the part? It seems like quite the challenge, but that’s actually how it went for Teyonah Parris when she went out for the role of Monica Rambeau in WandaVision. While on Collider Ladies Night celebrating the show’s nine episode run on Disney+, Parris walked us through her entire Marvel experience from the auditions she did for prior MCU projects to all the exciting things that now lie ahead for Monica.

Parris made her MCU debut in Episode 2 of Wandavision, “Don’t Touch That Dial,” as Geraldine, a resident of Westview in the 1960s. However, ultimately we learn that Geraldine is actually Monica Rambeau, the daughter of Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch), the founder of S.W.O.R.D.. It’s a huge opportunity for a multitude of reasons, but in December 2020, Marvel confirmed what many suspected – Monica was destined for a multi-project run and will next be seen in Nia DaCosta’s Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels.

Not only did Parris have absolutely no idea where the character was heading in the franchise when she auditioned for the role, but she didn’t even know she was auditioning for Monica! Here’s Parris’ play-by-play of her WandaVision audition:

“I was given sides that ultimately were a version of the scene between Geraldine and Wanda with the stork and all of those things happening with Wanda’s water breaking and those sorts of things. When my agent calls and says, ‘Hey, we want you to put this Marvel audition on tape,’ you have a very specific idea of what that will look like. Because I’ve put many Marvel things on tape over the last decade, so when I got it, I was like, ‘Huh? I don’t understand this. I thought you said something with Marvel.’ And they’re like, ‘No, that’s it.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t understand,’ and then I thought I was just doing too much. The notes that the director had given was, ‘It’s okay to do too much. It’s okay to have this stylized idea,’ whatever, and I was like, ‘Okay!’ So I did it, I let it go.”

WandaVision Teyonah Parris — Image via Marvel Studios

As Parris explained during our chat, a key part of her process is doing an audition and then letting it go. “I have to let it go spiritually and for my mental health, right?” Little did she know at the time, there’d be no need to let this one go.

“So weeks later it came back and my agent was like, Shauna said, ‘Oh, you know that Marvel thing you went in for? It’s looking really good.’ And I was like, ‘Hm, no?’ She’s like, ‘Remember the weird thing?’ I was like, ‘Oh! Okay! Right, okay, tell me more!’ And then she was like, ‘It looks like you got the part.’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! What’s the part?’ Still don’t know what the part is. Don’t know the project, don’t know anything. And they were like, ‘Hold on, let me call you back and find out.’ She calls back, she’s like, ‘Uh, the little girl from Captain …’ She didn’t even say it before I said, ‘Don’t tell me it’s Monica Rambeau.’ And she was like, ‘Yeah, Monica, the little girl from Captain Marvel.’ I flew off the handle, so excited! So that’s when I found out the character, but I still didn’t really know what she was in and the capacity she would be in until months later when I went to LA and had this meeting with the creatives. Then they told me everything! Everything. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! It’s so much, it’s so much!’ And I burst into tears, and was crying and was like, ‘Okay, I’m sorry.’ And so that’s when I found everything out.”

Perhaps this is easy to say as an uninvolved observer, but it does feel like the role of Monica Rambeau was well worth the wait. After having put “many Marvel things on tape over the last decade,” Parris landed a part that she shines in and also one that appears to have a very bright future in the franchise. If you’re looking for more from Parris on her journey to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, be sure to check out our uncut Ladies Night interview in the podcast below.