Winston Duke Talks Playing M'Baku

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Woof! Woof! Woof!

Winston Duke Talks Playing M’Baku

Winston Duke knows fans have been fawning over his character in “Black Panther” and he’s finally reacting to it. As previously reported the breakout Marvel star sizzled pannies on screen as Jabari tribe leader M’Baku in the film that’s passed the billion-dollar mark at the box office.

And now, according to Duke he understands that people weren’t just turned on by his good looks because of good genes, his character filled a “deficit” in Hollywood.

“At first, I was really blown away by it, and then I started being like, ‘Maybe I am really sexy, this is really cool,” Duke told ESSENCE, “I started feeling myself, but then I stopped and pulled back. I started reading the comments because I wanted to understand what’s going on.”

“I started to realize that what people were reacting to wasn’t me,” he explained. “What they were reacting to was a feeling of deficit when it came to images that they could consume in the media. A tall, broad-shouldered man with dark skin and a gap tooth—I wasn’t the image of ‘old Hollywood beauty.'”

Very true. How often do you get to see a very large, very fine black man in Hollywood? Winston Duke definitely stands out.

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He also added that M’Baku’s no-nonsense attitude added to the character’s appeal.

Moreover, Duke says fans were attracted to M’baku because he “was a Black man who isn’t playing into any kind of respectability politics in the film” and he was more than just a formidable combatant or challenger to T’Challa ’s throne. “It’s opening up a new space for how we define, what is beauty—what’s beauty and what’s sexy and what’s alluring.”

(ABC/Rick Rowe)

Were you turned on by MMMMMMMMMM’Baku in Black Panther???