Marvel actress Letitia Wright reveals in a new interview that her Christian faith rescued her during a time when she was depressed and was considering quitting the industry.

Wright was propelled into stardom in 2018 with her role in Black Panther alongside the late Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020. In 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she plays the lead role.

But Wright, 29, says she nearly quit acting several years ago during a bout of depression. At the time, she was partying and drinking. She told The Guardian she had lost her values and perspective on life.

Actor Malachi Kirby (2016’s Roots), a Christian, invited her to an actors’ Bible study. Kirby said God had told him to reach out to her. “[Christianity] gave me the centering I needed, the good foundation I needed, and it helped me to put in perspective what was important for me,” Wright said. “Chasing something that is not tangible or not wholesome is not the way I want to go. If I were to pack all this up, I’d still be happy with my faith, the contentment I feel and the connection to God.”

The newspaper asked her: Had she been chasing unwholesome things? “Yes, of course. We all chase things,” Wright answered. “You feel you need a better job, or better role, or more accolades, or more recognition. And I was chasing that. I had been chasing, chasing, chasing, but feeling empty. I realized I don’t have to chase that anymore. If I trust that God has a plan for my life, and I follow that and trust I’m doing the right things, then if people feel it, they will. … The more I prayed, the more I felt connected and the less anxious.”

Wright comes from a religious family but wanted a personal relationship with Jesus, saying, “My parents have always had faith, but it wasn’t something we continually practiced. I had to find what worked for me, and I found that Jesus worked for me.” She launched a production company, Threesixteen, that gets its name from the New Testament verse John 3:16. Wright and Boseman were close friends. He shared her faith, she said. “He definitely believed in God,” she said. “He grew up a Christian, and his brother was a pastor.”

In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, she reprises her role as the scientist superhero Shuri. What makes this prolific output all the more impressive is that she is still grieving for the actor Chadwick Boseman, her fictional brother in Black Panther and as close to a real brother as she’s had in real life. “I was devastated, as you can imagine. I’ve had to process it through therapy,” she says. “It’s not like I had a two-year break to process it and then came back into the film. We had to start six months after Chad died.”

Wright says Boseman’s death taught her that there’s an illusion where we think we have so much time with people when in reality, we don’t. She says it also led her to reach out to the people you love while you have the chance.