The Mummy: Sofia Boutella “I am proud to have been chosen to be the first female Mummy”

Sofia Boutella is now playing The Mummy! And on this occasion, the Franco-Algerian actress was kind enough to answer our questions.
After playing the formidable Gazelles in Kingsman: Secret Services and having helped Chris Pine in Star Trek: Beyond , it is in the skin of one of the most legendary monsters of the cinema that the Franco-Algerian actress Sofia Boutella slips today. Yes, the Mummy that haunted us so little is back to play us bad tricks and this time it takes on a feminine form. That of Ahmanet, a princess of ancient Egypt mummified alive after making a pact with Seth, the god of evil and darkness. We had the chance to interview her (Sofia Boutella, not Ahmanet see) and the actress told us to be very proud of this role . And she can! But slipping into the skin of a Mummy was not easy and the actress really went to the bottom to get there. How? We let you discover it in our interview below!
The Mummy, Sofia Boutella
Sofia Boutella confides exclusively for melty!
First, congratulations for your performance in The Mummy, which was pretty amazing. If I tell you that you’re stealing the show at Tom Cruise, what does that do to you?
It’s not possible to steal the show at Tom Cruise (laughs)! Thank you, in any case it was an honor to work with him. It really helped me find the character, it really helped me and pushed me to do my best and it was really encouraging. I could not have done it without him! That is true !
Your character looks quite special. How do you put yourself in the shoes of a Mummy?
Six hours of makeup (laughs)! No, it was still a process. I did a lot of research on ancient Egypt, Egyptian mythology. I also wanted to look for kings and queens from different countries and how they were painted, how people would write about them. I needed to feel the ladder to which they lived, how they stood, how they spoke. Because Ahmanet, the character I play is Pharaoh in his head, he’s a queen. And I’m not like that in life so I really had to find that strength and power and by doing all this research it helped me. But to have also paid attention to the language of the body and how I move in space, the speed to which I speak, which is really very calm and confident. And then yes, There is makeup. Even though it was something that was quite tiring because of the time I spent there. Six hours is huge on a massage table with six makeup artists around me doing this work. But I needed to feel this work on me, this transformation and I needed to feel the look of others on me, it was different with makeup.
This is the second time you play a bad guy in the movies, what do you like in this kind of role?
I think I just read the scripts that made me want to. I do not necessarily want to play that bad or that nice. I do not have a specific directive at the moment. I just want to explore and learn. I have everything to learn, I’m just starting out in that environment. But I think Kingsman is still quite special and unique and this one too is an iconic film. The character is iconic and I thought it would be a great challenge. I put a lot of pressure on the film, the character and what it represents. I film the Mummy of 1932 with Boris Karloff, it is a film that I saw growing up, that I saw when I was a teenager and for which I had a lot of admiration so I had a lot Of pressure before accepting this role. I wondered if I would be able to bring something unique while paying tribute to the originals and whether the film would also translate the same kind of effect. But yes, I think the character is special and I think it’s really a good idea that it is a woman. I am proud to have been chosen.