Recently Geeks of Doom was invited to attend the Captain Marvel press conference, where we got to chat with stars Brie Larson (Captain Marvel), Lashana Lynch (Maria Rambeau), Jude Law (Yon Rogg), Gemma Chan (Doctor Minerva), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), and Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson).

In this interview, Larson, Lynch, and Chan talk about being more than just a superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. See what they had to say below.

Lynch was always going to be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Being a fan of that world, she had campaigned to be a part of it for a very long time. “I’m a Marvel fan,” Lynch said. “I’ve grown up watching them. I’ve grown up watching the characters and enjoying their trajectories. And I just had a feeling something would come up.”

And after patiently waiting for two years, the role of Maria Rambeau came up. In the film, she plays Carol Danvers’ best friend, an ace pilot who faced the same struggles as a woman in a male-dominated field. And yet, she proved that she could fly higher, further, and faster. Not only that, but she felt that this was the role she was destined to play. Talking about not getting any of those other MCU roles, Lynch says that they did not all work out for a reason. “I felt like, energetically, I was drawn towards something that represented something that I cared about: women. So yeah, I campaigned. Of course I did.”

But if there is one thing that defines Captain Marvel as a whole, it’s the friendship between Carol and Maria. It is such a great dynamic between the two that helps encapsulate some of the film’s biggest themes. So in terms of what drew them together, Lynch says working in the military, a male-dominated environment, that they found power in each other. “The nice thing about how Brie is representing Carol is that she is just a normal person,” Lynch said. “She is able to be every facet of what a woman represents today: sarcastic, dry, funny, she’s kicking them down and is prevalent in different parts of the universe. So I feel that Maria embodies that in a very human way. She is able to be a kind and good person.”

Larson agreed. “I think what they’ve gone through together, going through military training together, being the only women, and then using each other to lean on each other through that type of support and a recognition of their experience is really special,” Larson said.

She believes that the two would have been friends outside of that experience. “They are family,” Larson said. “That is kind of what we are talking about in this film. And without being too showboating about it, that is the love of the movie. This is the love lost, this is the love found again, this is the reason to continue fighting and to go to the ends of the earth for the person, the thing, that you love, and it’s her and her best friend’s daughter. Which to me is so natural.”

The power of that character and her relationship to Carol really showed, when those who attended an early screening of the film with Larson told her that Maria was the love. “It’s not something that we made a big deal about but it feels so natural,” Larson said. “Because that love is so strong, and it’s like the movie shifts when she’s on screen because there is a level of power that she commands.”

But it was a bit different for Gemma Chan, who plays Minerva, the sniper member of the Starforce team. Chan, who played the kind, warm, strong, and empathetic Astrid in Crazy Rich Asians, talked about what it was like for her to play someone with a harder edge. “I loved it,” Chan said. “I like to change it up and surprise people a bit. She’s sarcastic, she’s a bit of a mean girl, I like tapping into that side of me. It’s fun to be bad.”

Although, it looks like she went through a bit of a different training process than Larson and Lynch. “I had to learn how to crawl with a rifle,” Chan said. “I did all the drills. There’s an amazing stunt team that Marvel have and they help you look like you know what you’re doing.”

That was somewhat different from the training that Larson and Lynch got from US Air Force pilots. “Flying an F-16 is like your eyeballs coming out of your sockets and landing in your back pocket,” Lynch said. “That was great. I can’t liken it to anything else but that. It was just nice to have the military welcome me into their environment and feel noticed. For the women to be really uplifted through the MCU. I think it is such a special marrying of two types of worlds that really mesh well together. I felt like I am not only representing women, I’m representing black women, I’m representing single mothers, and I am representing all women in the military, and that is pretty damn special.”

And if there is one thing that Lynch could bring back today from the ’90s, she would bring back ’90s R&B, which she sees as “the truth.” As for Larson, she would like to see butterfly clips make a comeback. For Chan, it would be Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which might just happen soon.

Captain Marvel opens in theaters on March 8, 2019. Click right here for more on the film, including additional interviews, trailers, and our review.