Sasheer Zamata talks 'Agatha: Coven of Chaos' and 'The First Girl'

Actress and Comic Sasheer Zamata is having a magical 12 months. Not solely is her hilarious stand-up particular The First Girl headed to YouTube, however Zamata has formally joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as sorcerer Jennifer Kale in Agatha: Coven of Chaos.

Properly-recognized for her performances in exhibits like Hulu’s Woke, ABC’s House Economics, and Moongirl and Satan Dinosaur, Zamata additionally co-hosts the podcast Finest Pals with comedic companion Nicole Byer. She can also be on the brief record of Black girls to grace the Saturday Evening Stay stage as an everyday solid member. Past her appearing pursuits, Zamata champions girls’s rights as an Artist Ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union, striving to demystify intricate girls’s rights subjects for audiences.

If Zamata appears busy, you’re not fallacious. Nonetheless, the actress and comic took a second to talk with Mashable earlier than the SAG/AFTRA strike commenced to debate how she produced and wrote The First Girl and the significance of witchcraft on set.

The First Girl brings feminine empowerment to the forefront of comedy

Drawing from private experiences and the deluge of main occasions — from the COVID-19 pandemic and the next lockdown to the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board of Schooling — Zamata discovered herself with an abundance of fabric from which to decide on. “Narrowing issues down, it grew to become clear that there was a theme that was occurring,” mentioned Zamata. “The First Girl grew to become extra about well being and womanhood and my private being.”

All through The First Girl, Zamata shares a wide selection of seemingly unrelated experiences: being scammed on a date, a brunch-related masturbation incident, and even the vehicular necessity of truck nuts. But, these conditions all humorously hook up with girls’s freedom of expression.

Zamata additionally highlights a number of girls’s points, together with the implicit racial medical bias in healthcare. Particularly, she tackles the tendency of medical professionals to disbelieve girls, significantly girls of coloration, after they describe their ache. The comic even shares her personal expertise of being requested to face for a check following a near-fatal automotive crash. “I have been hanging onto that automotive accident story for therefore lengthy and did not know what to do with it…as a result of it was fairly an ordeal,” Zamata revealed. “However as I used to be forming this particular, I [realized] I’ve an apparent instance of medical racial bias.”

Witchcraft and feminism intersect in Zamata’s new stand-up particular

Credit score: Sasheer Zamata

Zamata’s fascination with witches and their historic significance closely impressed The First Girl, main the comic to discover themes of feminine autonomy, empowerment, and physique positivity. Zamata says she was influenced by Kristen J. Sollee’s best-selling ebook Witches, Sluts and Feminists: conjuring the Intercourse Constructive.

“[The book] talks about feminine sexuality and the historical past round it. Girls’s our bodies have been demonized for therefore lengthy, and it is nonetheless occurring,” Zamata defined. “Finally a witch is an unbiased girl. It is a girl who’s a free thinker, in command of her womanhood, physique, and life. I do not assume that is a nasty factor.” 

The First Girl highlights those that practiced witchcraft (you’ll by no means take a look at a broomstick the identical manner once more) and those that have been labeled “witches” just because they didn’t conform to society’s patriarchy-created requirements. Zamata even facilitates a judgment-free call-and-response dialogue with girls within the viewers about the very best family objects with which to pleasure themselves. She is undaunted by making the viewers really feel uncomfortable. “A part of a comic’s job is to go locations that folks could really feel are taboo or sensitive,” mentioned Zamata. “I am in a spot the place I’m very comfy speaking about my womanhood and womanhood on the whole.” 

Sasheer Zamata joins an all-star solid as sorceress Jennifer Kale in Agatha: Coven of Chaos

Credit score: Sasheer Zamata

Talking of witches, Zamata is greater than a little bit enthusiastic about her position as sorceress Jennifer Kale on the upcoming Disney+ collection Agatha: Coven of Chaos. She feels this witchy storyline could be very a lot on model for her. “I had already written materials for [The First Woman] earlier than I went by means of the audition course of,” Zamata mentioned. “It felt magical that I bought to be in a present about witches. I discuss it a lot in my particular.”

Agatha: Coven of Chaos is a derivative of WandaVision — each have been created by Jac Schaeffer — which launched a brand new period of the MCU on Disney+ in 2021. Agatha: Coven of Chaos is centered round Kathryn Hahn’s depraved witch Agatha Harkness, who was left trapped within the small city of Westview, New Jersey, by the Scarlet Witch a.okay.a. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) within the season finale of WandaVision.

Zamata’s character, sorceress Jennifer Kale, has an in depth historical past with Marvel comics, linking her to everybody from Man-Factor to Howard the Duck. However as Zamata factors out, “I undoubtedly did do as a lot [comic book] analysis as I may,” she mentioned. “however the way in which we fashioned this character could be very totally different from what I feel individuals anticipate.”

In Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Zamata stars alongside a powerful array of expertise, together with Patti LuPone as Lilia Calderu, Joe Locke as Billy Kaplan, and Miles Gutierrez-Riley as Billy’s boyfriend Hulkling. Aubrey Plaza will even seem as Rio Vidal, a brand new character created particularly for the collection.

Marvel is giving Agatha: Coven of Chaos an prolonged season of 9 episodes on Disney+

Credit score: Sasheer Zamata

When discussing her expertise on set, Zamata could not comprise her enthusiasm. “[Shooting the show] was so magical and ethereal. It introduced that out of everybody on set,” she mentioned. “There have been crystals and candles all over the place. We saged and cleansed the stage on a regular basis. It was the right surroundings for me.” 

Followers can stay up for a full 9 episodes of Agatha: Coven of Chaos, an extension past Disney’s traditional six-episode run for his or her superhero streaming exhibits.

Though the collection accomplished principal images, the plot particulars stay a thriller, leaving followers to invest. With the addition of solid members Debra Jo Rupp and Emma Caufield Ford reprising their roles from WandaVision — plus the truth that Wanda seemed to be killed on the finish of Physician Unusual: Within the Multiverse of Madness — it is throughout the realm of chance that the collection may revisit Westview and witness Agatha breaking free from Wanda’s spell.

Zamata couldn’t affirm nor deny our speculations — however, in a mirrored image of Emilia Clarke’s expertise whereas filming Secret Invasion with Marvel Safety, mentioned, “I bought the very same spiel that Emilia did. ‘Do not take footage in lodge rooms. They might come discover you. I used to be so scared to have bodily scripts. After I used to be carried out with them, I’d simply throw them at a producer!”

When requested if she’s prepared to hitch the MCU, one of the crucial important franchises — with an enormous, world fanbase — she replied with conviction, “I’ve been dying to be part of [the MCU] for years. That is excellent.”

The First Girl will air from August 15 on the 800 Pound Gorilla web site with a “pay what you need” mannequin, wherein followers can contribute $2 or extra to look at the particular earlier than it drops on YouTube without cost on August 29.

Agatha: Coven of Chaos will premiere on Disney+ in 2024.