MCU: 10 Fascinating Facts Behind Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

8. Tessa Thompson Chose Her Own Accent (Despite Being Told Not To)

As well as encouraging ad-libbing on the film, Waititi also allowed some of the actors to make their own choices for their characters beyond their lines. For instance, Tessa Thompson chose to give Valkyrie an English accent despite her director saying it wasn't necessary. And her reasoning was hard to argue with:

“That was a big conversation actually because we were of two minds. When I met Taika and he heard me as Valkyrie, he wanted ‘me’ to play the part,” Thompson said. “But then you watch the Thor movies, there’s this Asgardian thing that I could not get out of my head. Then you read the source material and anytime Valkyrie speaks it’s in those cool italics — so I’m like, ‘She has an accent!’ And Taika’s like, ‘It doesn’t matter. They won’t care.’ Even Tony [Anthony] Hopkins, who I worked with recently on the show Westworld, was like ‘Oh darling, it doesn’t matter, they’ll be eating popcorn.’ That’s literally what he said to me!”

For Thompson, it was the source material that mattered more than her director's guidance or that of an actual Knight of the Realm, thankfully:

“But I’m a nerd and I go back to the source material and I’m like, ‘I have to speak in italics.’ I don’t know how else to approach the part. So we [settled] on something that felt like it honors Asgard.

Interestingly, she also revealed that she based her performance as Valkyrie on Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.