Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays the role of Dr.Kate Murry the mother to Meg (Storm Reid) and Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and the wife of Alexander Murray (Chris Pine) in A Wrinkle In Time premiering in theaters March 9th. A beautiful microbiologist with academic and scientific accomplishments. Gugu MBatha-Raw recently shared with me during a round-table interview the inside scoop and her experience on the set of A Wrinkle In Time. Here are my favorite highlights…

In the movie, I thought Gugu Mbatha-Raw did a great job playing the mother of the Murray family so I surprised to find out she doesn’t have any kids of her own. Inquiring minds wanted to know what made her accept the role when Ava asked and the process of identifying her inner character.

“I mean for you know I’ve never played a mom before. I don’t have kids. You know when Ava first approached me to play the mom in this I was kind of like, oh are you sure? I don’t know if I can pull this off you know. And then I saw a picture of Storm and I was like oh my gosh look at her. You know I saw myself in her I think you know it was not lost on me that you know growing up I loved the never-ending story and the Wizard of Oz and all those incredible fantastical adventures. I didn’t have anybody who looked like myself and Storm as the heroine in those kinds of movies when I was young. So yeah, there was sort of special sort of cultural significance for me to sort of be ushering in the next generation in that way. And like you say, you know I don’t get to go to all the fantastical lands that Storm and Derek get to go to in the story. I sort of felt like my job was to ground their domestic reality you know as and you know to create that warm, solid family unit that everyone was so desperate to return to.”

Dr. Kate Murray became a single Mom after losing her husband. With so many messages I really wanted to hear what Gugu Mbatha-Raw what message she wanted to leave young girls with.

“I’m drawn to the idea of finding your voice. I think the idea that who you are is enough. Storm’s character of being uncomfortable in her own skin, not sure where she fits. You know those are themes that were beyond the lights and in many stories that I’m attracted to. Being authentic to who you are that you don’t have to find validation from your career or from you know the music industry, from any external forces. Know that you have all the potential inside of you and that’s something I think I would love young people to feel and learn and understand.”

The chance to work with Ava DuVernay is on the list of many actors and actresses when Gugu Mbatha-Raw was asked what attracted you to this role here’s what she had to say

“I mean ultimately it was really the opportunity to work with Ava DuVernay. You know I think that you know not having a relationship with the book you know, and I had met Ava you know when Selma was coming out the same time as Belle. There were a few sorts of press things. We’d always met each other at sparkly industry events but we’d never sort of had a real conversation. She invited me to be a part of this short film, a series of shorts that she made for the opening of the African-American Museum of history and culture at the Smithsonian.

We did one short, one day of filming to represent Hurricane Katrina in this series of different shorts. Literally a couple of weeks later I got you know I got the offer for wrinkle. Knowing and talking with Ava about it and her passion and her vision then she cast Storm and she wanted to tell this story you know it was a no-brainer to me. You know I really wanted to be a part of this game-changing moment really in the industry. I could feel that this the way that she was going to cast this film the fact that it’s historically significant that she’s even directing this film you know as a woman of color. I wanted to be a part of that girl gang celebrating what this means culturally.”

From visionary director Ava DuVernay comes Disney’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” an epic adventure based on Madeleine L’Engle’s timeless classic which takes audiences across dimensions of time and space, examining the nature of darkness versus light and, ultimately, the triumph of love. Through one girl’s transformative journey led by three celestial guides, we discover that strength comes from embracing one’s individuality and that the best way to triumph over fear is to travel by one’s own light.

Meg Murry is a typical middle school student struggling with issues of self-worth who just wants to fit in. The daughter of two world-renowned physicists, she is intelligent and uniquely gifted, as is Meg’s younger brother, Charles Wallace, but she has yet to realize it for herself. Complicating matters is the mysterious disappearance of Mr. Murry, which has left Meg devastated and her mother broken-hearted. Charles Wallace introduces Meg and her fellow classmate Calvin to three celestial beings (Mrs. Which, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who) who have journeyed to Earth to help search for their father, and together they embark on their formidable quest. Traveling via a wrinkling of time and space are known as tessering, they are transported to worlds beyond their imagination where they must confront a powerful evil force. To make it back home to Earth, Meg must face the darkness within herself in order to harness the strength necessary to defeat the darkness rapidly enveloping the Universe.