Black Adam star Quintessa Swindell is a breath of fresh air as the powerful Cyclone
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Superhero training is nothing new. If you're an actor and you get cast to play a comic-book hero, you're probably committing to a fair amount of gym time. Sometimes that can mean hitting the weights or practicing the perfect punch; other times, you have to learn how to mimic flight by dangling in a harness, dozens of feet off the ground.
But when Quintessa Swindell signed on to Black Adam, a decidedly more artistic approach was taken. Swindell, who uses they/them pronouns, co-stars as Maxine Hunkel, a.k.a. Cyclone, and is the first nonbinary actor who identifies as gender-nonconforming to play a superhero in the DCEU. Cyclone is a brilliant young heroine with the ability to manipulate the wind — a simple wave of her arms can unleash a tornado. To prepare for the role, Swindell studied with expert dancers and researched early modern dance pioneers like Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan, known for their elegant, swirling motions. On set, Swindell would play music to help them get into character, and the result is a uniquely graceful hero who moves unlike any other superhero on screen.
"It became a very personal experience," Swindell, 25, says. "I feel like when you're moving your body, you start to feel yourself in different ways, and you want to accentuate different things. Through movement, there's an emotional release. So when I was training, I became more comfortable in my body, and really empowered in a way that I honestly didn't think would happen."
Warner Bros. Pictures Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone in 'Black Adam'
Warner Bros.' Black Adam (out Oct. 21) is titled after Dwayne Johnson's antihero, an all-powerful figure from DC Comics lore. But the film also marks the big-screen debut of the Justice Society of America, a legendary DC super-squad that faces off against the brawny Adam. Some of the Justice Society members are already experienced heroes, including Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate and Aldis Hodge's Hawkman. Others are new recruits, and Swindell's Cyclone joins the team at the same time as fellow newbie Atom Smasher (To All the Boys' Noah Centineo).
Swindell is also new to the superhero game, not unlike the character they play on-screen. After studying theater, the Virginia-born actor broke out in 2019 with roles on HBO's hit Euphoria and the Netflix teen drama Trinkets. But Black Adam is their biggest role yet. Swindell says they wanted to embrace that newness on set and use their own wide-eyed wonder to inform how they approached Maxine.
"Very rarely have I seen a role that paints a young girl in a way that gives her the ability to live authentically and truthfully in her weirdness," Swindell explains. "She's on the precipice of embracing her sense of self and discovering her power."
Warner Bros. Pictures Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone in 'Black Adam'
Swindell is a longtime, self-professed DC Comics fan, and in some ways, Black Adam has a lot in common with your traditional superhero fare: There are cool gadgets and magical MacGuffins and more than a few jaw-dropping fight scenes. (Cyclone's powers are particularly gorgeous on screen, manifesting as churning Technicolor hurricanes.) But the film, set in the fictional Middle Eastern nation of Kahndaq, also boasts an unexpected moral ambiguity, probing questions about who gets to be a hero — and what heroism actually entails.
"Especially now, when we reframe our thoughts about imperialism, globalization, and who has the power in a society," Swindell adds, 'those are concepts that are so timely, and I'm thankful that Black Adam talks about them, and promotes that conversation. I hope that when people go, they're like, 'Well, what would you have done? What do you signify as justice or injustice, and how does that fluctuate culture to culture?' That's what I love about the film."
Despite these occasionally weighty themes, Swindell says their main goal was to keep things light on set — as breezy and fluid as Maxine's powers.
"The biggest challenge was getting out of my head and letting go and being loose," they add. "For me, sometimes I tend to keep things really tight, and with Cyclone, I just wanted to release and be as present as I possibly could. And just have fun."
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