Tessa Thompson worries about getting "too comfortable" in her career.
Tessa Thompson
The 'Men in Black: International' star likes to be the first person to speak up and refuses to get too relaxed on set as she confessed she is a "sucker for the discomfort of the first squeak".
Speaking about challenging herself, she shared: "I think that’s why I like what I do. I’ve always felt a little afraid of what happens when we get too comfortable, that we’re not growing.
"Maybe I’m a masochist or maybe I’m a sucker for the discomfort of the first squeak."
And the 37-year-old actress is glad she is able to speak out about issues that are important to her as she believes it helps others who have been "silenced" about the same issues.
She added to Town and Country magazine: "There’s invariably people in the room that have been silenced. I remember a distinct moment on set.
"A squeak just came out of me, I didn’t even mean for it to, and then I could see the secret little smile on some of the women around the room, and you realise that there’s a choir of wheels waiting to squeak together ... You realise you have support and you’re not squeaking just on your own behalf. You’re squeaking for everybody."
Tessa revealed she has been inspired by the Time's Up movement to ask for better pay.
She said: "Time's Up allowed me to say things I’m not sure I would have said a year ago. The truth is, the system where you assess international value is inherently sexist and racist because we haven’t had those opportunities. The only way to disrupt that is to create new models ... When we were having the conversation around how we structure our deals, I said, 'I understand who Chris Hemsworth is and who I am not relative to him, globally and otherwise.' But in the success of the film, that changes. In success, I want equity."
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