Jameela Jamil Reveals How She Made Megan Thee Stallion’s Legendary ‘She-Hulk’ Moment Happen

Every Marvel show needs a perfect supervillain, and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law found one. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect foil for She-Hulk — a by-the-books lawyer who wants no extra attention — than Titania — an artificial influencer who wears couture and craves all the attention in the world. Titania is everything that She-Hulk isn’t and vice versa.

Similarly, Titania is everything that Jameela Jamil isn’t — and that’s exactly why Jamil reveled in satirizing the most toxic aspects of influencer culture. The Disney+ series really goes there, from lampooning the self-important “empowerment” of targeted ads to having Titania literally sell snake oil. Okay, Titania’s actually pushing Snake Venom Lip Plumper™ — but you get the joke. Jamil’s knows the ins and outs of this culture from her own online advocacy work (as well as just being a person on the internet), and playing Titania gives her a chance to deflate some egos.

Decider got the chance to speak with Jameela Jamil following the premiere of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 5, which contained Titania and She-Hulk’s fiercest courtroom clash to date. Below, Jamil talks about bridging the gap between her two shows (Legendary and She-Hulk), being the second-tallest person on-set for once, and she previews another stunt mishap that she can’t wait for us to see.

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Decider: The version of Titania that you play is considerably different from the comics and feels tailor made for you. Was it written with you in mind?

Jameela Jamil: No, and I know what you mean. It is uncanny. No, it absolutely was not made for me. I walked into a readymade plot line for Titania and they had a very specific idea of what they wanted. I had to audition alongside everyone else for it. And if anything, it kind of almost didn’t make sense for me to do it because of how how opposite I am to her in real life, and how she represents everything that I stand against. But that made her all the more delicious to play.

Over on Legendary, where you’re a judge, you get to dress like a superhero every week pretty much. Now you’re actually getting to wear fabulous clothes on a real superhero show. What are the differences? How do you compare Titania’s fashion to your Legendary looks?

I think they’re both quite similar to be honest, and that ballroom culture is about celebrating yourself and celebrating art and fashion and makeup and music. I think that Titania very much so stands for the same thing. She wants to be celebrated. She wants to be noticed. She doesn’t want you to look at anyone else in the room. She wants all eyes just on her, which is my personal nightmare. But she’s just so attention hungry and has been since she was a kid. It really is a fundamental insecurity that’s driving her and I think that’s quite relatable in quite a narcissistic world. What drives any of us to put our pictures up or to curate our lifestyles online?

Also we have you to thank for bringing Megan Thee Stallion into the MCU. How did that happen?

I was working with Megan on Legendary. I knew she was a huge Marvel fan. Marvel said they were looking for like an explosive celebrity cameo, and so, of course, my mind immediately went to Megan because she’s so special. She’s such a once in a generation talent, and so I presumed she’d be a good actor because she’s just a great performer. I asked her if she’d be up for it. I asked Marvel if they’d be up for it. They both screamed, Yes!” And so twerking Marvel history was made.

Did you get to be on set for that historical twerking moment?

Yes, I was. I wasn’t working that day but I went in not only just to make sure that Megan was comfortable, because she was joining a whole set of people who knew each other really well, but also I had to see her work with She-Hulk, which was just one of the more extraordinary moments of my life.

Speaking of Legendary, this is crazy timing but right now the internet is in an uproar calling for the very correct casting of your fellow Legendary judge Keke Palmer as Rogue. Who do you think Keke should play?

Keke can play anyone she wants because she’s a star. I am obsessed with Keke Palmer. I think she’s one of the most talented people in the world so there’s nothing I would object to Keke doing. I think we’re so lucky to have her I think she’s genuinely like one of the great talents of all time and the best interviewee ever.

I realized that you’re probably over six feet tall when you’re in heels, and you’re on set with She-Hulk’s stand-in Malia Arrayah. What was that like? Are you used to having women who are taller than you on set?

No, I’m not. It was it was it was a relief for my neck to finally not have to do this all the time. Finally, I could look up. Malia is so sweet, oh my God, such a gentle giant. That was really fun. It was nice. I felt like I had someone on my level. And Megan Thee Stallion is also really tall, by the way — except Megan has this energy of a stallion, whereas I’m giving more My Little Pony. It’s very pathetic and sort of diluted, comparatively.

You’ve talked about your stunt in the first episode where you pulled a muscle that you didn’t know you could pull. Do we have any more stunts to look forward to this season?

Oh, I’m sure. There’s a hilarious accident I have a video of that I can’t wait to be able to put on the internet where they told me to run out of a building screaming, and I did, and I ran into a screen that they’d forgotten they’d put right outside. I slapped against it like a mosquito and then go flying backwards onto the floor. And my favorite thing about that was just the fact that even though I’m a grown adult, I was absolutely convinced for at least five minutes it was a forcefield.

I mean, you’re on a Marvel set. Who knows what technology they could have. 

You can take the girl out of Marvel but you can’t take Marvel out of the girl.

Before Titania debuted I was wondering if she would have your English accent, but instead you went with this perfect American Instagram influencer accent. How did you develop that?

That was my idea. They weren’t sure if I’d be able to do an American accent or not and I only got cast very close to when we started filming, so they offered me the chance to do it in my English accent and I insisted before the audition that I would only try out if I could do it as a California influencer. Thankfully the episode just aired today and I’ve been feeling sick, only slept about two hours last night because I just wasn’t sure what I was going to wake up to, if everyone thought I butchered it. And they’re very happy, so thank goodness I didn’t screw that up. But it just felt right for the character.

Of the entire She Hulk by Titania line of products, are there any that you were like, “I’d like to have that on my shelf.” Did any sound appealing?

No, but I love the fact that she sells literal snake oil. I just think she’s such a funny satire of influencer culture. And obviously, we’re not coming for all influencers. We’re just coming for the ones who are the absolute worst, and you know who you are and you know what you’re selling is bullshit.

We’ll start calling them Titanias now for short.

Yeah, exactly. Are you a Titaniac now?

Oh, I am. I can’t wait to get the action figure! Do you think you’ll get an action figure?

I mean, I know that there’s a Funko Pop coming because everyone’s getting me to sign them in advance, which is really fun. I’ve been signing Funko Pop boxes that people are getting ready to sell. [Laughs] I appreciate that hustle to be honest.

New episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premiere on Disney+ on Wednesdays.