Storm Reid Talks About Playing Meg Murry In A Wrinkle In Time

Storm Reid Talks About Playing Meg Murry In A Wrinkle In Time

I remember when Disney announced that Storm Reid was chosen to star in A Wrinkle In Time. Excited doesn’t even begin to describe how it made me feel. I love seeing movies that are diverse and all about inclusion. I could tell that Ava did a great job picking her as Meg, and after seeing the first screening I could see immediately why she was tapped for the role. We had the opportunity to sit with Storm during the #WrinkleInTimeEvent to talk about her role in the film and she had some amazing things to share with us.

We started the conversation asking Storm how it felt being a next-generation heroine to young girls of color. As a woman of color, it’s important for my daughter to see herself in various aspects of life so she knows that anything is possible.

It means everything to me and it’s very empowering for me still as a young, little girl being able to represent the little girls that look like me and being able to give them hope and know that they can have any opportunity they wanna have and they can do anything no matter their big hair or their big nose, as people say, or their glasses or their skin tone. They can do anything. So, for me able to be that for them and be an inspiration and to uplift them and empower them in a time like this where everybody’s so divided and it’s so dark. It means a lot.

In this one statement, I immediately could feel my inner child shed a tear. See I have a big nose, and people made fun of me all the time when I was growing up. Hearing her take ownership of her self-image and use it as a way to inspire others meant a lot to me. Our interview only went uphill from there and I could tell even more why Ava wanted her to be Meg. We need her as a positive role model for our girls.

In the movie the Mrs. leave Meg with a gift when they go on to find her father, we asked Storm what ‘gift’ would she says she received from Oprah, Mindy, and Reese while working with them on the movie.

They’re all so great and I just learned from each and every one of them constant graciousness, because they are just so amazing and so empowering. And they’re these A List stars, but they don’t act like it. And they are so grounded and so humble. And I just love them. And then Miss Oprah told me don’t waste energy on things you can’t change in life when you can be using that energy on something positive in your life. So, they’re just all so great and I’m glad that I have them in my corner to pour into me and just be around me, ’cause they’re amazing women.

This girl is wise beyond her years. LOL. Storm has been acting for 11 years, but A Wrinkle In Time was her first lead. She shared that her audition process was a little long, it took a month of auditioning and then another month before she knew the role was hers. “I learned so much and had the best time, and being around such amazing, powerful women and people to kinda lift me up and empower me was really amazing;” said Storm about her six months filming on set.

I have to give a lot of credit to Ava DuVernay and Jennifer Lee because the film has quite a few scenes that focus on positive images and learning to love yourself just the way you are. We asked Storm about one of those scenes specifically and without spoiling that scene I wanted to share her outstanding answer.

I feel like it had a deeper message in that scene for me I think, for young girls not to conform to what society wants you to be and what society thinks you should be or how you should look, because you’re perfect just the way you are. And you have Meg, who is doubtful about herself and doesn’t love herself at the time. And you have this perfect version of her with this straight hair and this crop top and all these lil’ trinkets and who is really pretty and is cute.

But Meg chooses herself over this perfect Meg, because she is realizing that she is enough and that she is worthy of being loved just the way she is. So, I feel like it was really fun to film, but it had a deeper message and I’m glad that I was able to kind of connect with that as a young teenage girl trying not to follow trends and trying to be unique and be myself. And also I feel like that will transcend to our audience, especially our young girls.

When talking with Storm she was so insightful, we wanted to know if she learned anything about herself while portraying Meg Murry in the film.

I wouldn’t say I learned anything different, but I did learn that I am enough. And, of course, my mom taught me that and instilled that in me, and I’m pretty confident. But just being Meg and experiencing that and going through that journey with her where she doesn’t feel that way about herself and she has to embrace the light from within to become that, it really helped me do the same and really reassure that I was enough and that I am worthy of being loved, and I do have faults and challenges, but that can’t stop me.

So, I feel like that was the biggest lesson I learned, and I say that me and Meg grew up together, because Meg is growing through the journey and then I was her, and I was growing as Storm, as a person, as a teenager as well.

We asked Storm about where she pulled from to get the emotion she used in the film when she was dealing with her missing father.

So, thankfully my father hasn’t been missing for four years. So, that’s good, but with all the situations Meg is going through I really had to step in her shoes and become that and kinda put myself in those situations. So, I had to just imagine my dad being missing for four years and I go on this tumultuous journey to try to find him and put my life at risk to try to find him and me walking into a room and seeing him there, I mean how could you not get emotional? How could you not feel that?

And then Mr. Chris was so great and he was so focused, and you could really tell that he had that connection as well with Meg and Dr. Murray. And it was just great all around. So, he helped a lot. And then just kinda stepping into Meg’s shoes and becoming her helped a lot too.