Masters Of The Universe Actress Camilla Mendes Affirms The Film Will Explore "Toxic Masculinity"

Camilla Mendes, who plays Teela in Amazon MGM Studios upcoming Masters of the Universe, film affirmed that the film will explore “toxic masculinity.”

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Mendes discussed her character and her relationship with her father, the race-swapped Man-At-Arms played by Idris Elba, “It's hard to talk about Teela without talking about her relationship to her father, because I feel like so much of who she is has to do with how she was, I guess, let down as a kid. And I feel like that really built this outer wall around her that's sort of like shielding this inner sensitivity.”

“She's affected by toxic masculinity just as much as the men in the film,” she continued. “And I think she's sort of adopted masculinity to protect herself in this very masculine world. It's how she survives. She's in survival mode, and has been for a very long time.”

Mendes was not the only one to discuss masculinity in the film with Entertainment Weekly. The film’s director Travis Knight also compared the film’s depiction of He-Man to the original animated series, “He was talking about kindness. He was talking about friendship and compassion. He was somebody who cared. And he was essentially like a bronzed empathy coach in furry underpants.”

“It was unique. It was different. And certainly for a kid like me — I was a sensitive kid. I was an artist. I was kind of a weird guy, you might say, and I made friends slowly when I made them at all…. I was comfortable with my own company, and I had deep thoughts and deep feelings, but I had a hard time making those types of deep connections easily with others. And so that very notion that strength and sensitivity could commingle, it was seismic. It was like discovering you could own both a tank and a diary,” he explained.

Actor Nicholas Galitzine, who plays He-Man, also shared, “This was like playing two characters, in a lot of ways. We're not reinventing the wheel necessarily, but the arc was so powerful. And I think as someone who grew up in a very masculine sphere of rugby but always felt like a really sensitive, emotionally intuitive person, I really did see myself in this character.”

As for what that arc will be, he shared, “[His life on Earth] is a little soulless, it's a little mundane, it's devoid of color and life.”

“It's frustrating, because Adam feels like he sees the best in people, he wants the best for people, but it doesn't feel like any of that is reciprocated for him,” he continued. “What is it like to be a pariah from such a young age, and always be gaslit into thinking that there's something wrong with you, but also the feeling that you weren't really at home on your home planet either? So it's this feeling of not really belonging anywhere.”

Finally, he concluded that Adam forms a “cocoon to remove [himself] from the possibility of feeling and being disappointed and hoping. Eventually, after 15 years, he's really a shadow of a person. He's lost hope. And so we meet him in quite a depressive sort of place.”

This is not the first time, the individuals involved in this film have talked about masculinity being a theme of the film.

Knight previously told Empire, “Skeletor’s kind of the embodiment of toxic masculinity.”

Gallitine also informed ScreenRant, “Without spoiling too much, I think there is a modernity to him that is really interesting. It feels like who he is as a person is a handshake between what traditional masculinity and femininity are, and I think it is very exciting to be able to play that in such a huge studio movie.”

“Obviously, the action and the set pieces are incredible, but there's a really human story in there as well. I think if I'm going to do something with that level of spectacle, I have to have that as well,” he concluded.

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