30 Reasons To LOVE Gina Torres

gina torres

Because some people deserve the longest love letter in the world… here are a mere 30 reasons to spread a cape beneath the feet of Gina Torres.

1. She’s the youngest of three children in a close-knit Afro-Cuban American family. Her parents were native Cubans and she grew up in a Latino neighbourhood. Many Cubans will be inspired by her media success.

2. Together with partner Laurence Fishburne she saw fit to name her daugher Delilah. What’s not to love about that?

3. As First Officer Zoe Warren-Washburne in Firefly, she is and always will be a Brown Coat.

4. In Suits she’s a chess master who wipes the floor with her foolhardy challengers. Board game lovers unite!

5. In Suits, she towers over her opponents both psychologically and physically, wearing sky-high heels at five-foot-ten. You just don’t see that on the screen. Normally you’ve got guys being shot cleverly to make them look tall. She tells Vulture: “It’s wonderful when you see those shots of me clicking it down the hallway from head to toe, and it’s all me.”

6. She’s a capable and badass woman both in life and on-screen, and is one of increasingly fewer such women who haven’t had to endure a media backlash.

7. She would make a fantastic Wonder Woman, because this…

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(Courtesy of Rhube)

8. and this…

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(Courtesy of icoulduseinsouciantmaybe)

Which basically translates as this:

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(Courtesy of Modern Myths)

9. She doesn’t just play live-action badass women, she’s got a hold on the animated universe, too. Airachnid in Transformers: Prime, Vixen in Justice League Unlimited, Superwoman in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. Her voice acting is beautiful, and she loves it: “It’s wonderful, it’s expressive. It’s a way of using a part of my instrument that I’m comfortable and familiar with. The voice is such a vital part of crafting a character. I’m so pleased that I have the kind of voice that prints well and that people want to hear. I’ve had friends actually say, ‘You know, I was in the kitchen, and the television was on and I heard you.’ I love hearing that there’s something familiar about my sound, and that to some people it’s soothing.”

10. Oh, and video games. She voices Wonder Woman in Wonder Woman Online.

11. Her singing voice is as thrilling as her speaking one; she used to sing in a gospel choir as a mezzo soprano.

12. She has been in everything sci-fi and fantasy, ever. Xena: Warrior Princess, Firefly/Serenity, Justice League, Hercules, Alias, Angel, The Matrix sequels… she just keeps picking the good ones and/or making them better.

13. She couldn’t afford to attend the colleges she applied for due to financial setbacks, so she got into acting by getting work from the ground up. She began her acting journey by answering phones at the Lincoln Theater Company.

14. Gina speaks about the film industry’s sexism and sci-fi, as shared by The Mary Sue:

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(Courtesy of The Mary Sue)

“I walk into a room, and for this industry, I’m impossibly tall. When they find it hard to pair you up with the opposite sex, then what’s left for a woman? Either you’re the ball-buster or the not-so-attractive girlfriend standing by the lead. I mean, traditionally not so attractive. Because you have your starlets and then you have their best friends who are these character actresses. When you fall within the cracks, you thank God for sci-fi, because they’ll give you a gun, and they’ll say, ‘Go over there and conquer that world. You kick some ass, girl!”.

15. It’s because of Gina Torres and her role as team leader that we discovered Cleopatra 2525, a flawed but intriguing sci-fi series following a woman who wakes in the future following complications from a breast augmentation. With so many women actors in the fore, this TV series (which got 2 seasons) comfortably passed the Bechdel Test – and the Mako Mori test.

16. As the star of Huge (ABC Family’s drama set in a “fat camp” which approaches the sensitive subject matter of young women and body issues) Gina is a big believer in body positivity. She says of the show that it’s less about losing weight and more about finding your “best self” and making good choices. She tells Popeater: “Weight loss is not the focus and centre of the show. What we’re saying is that self-discovery and getting in tune with what exactly makes you tick and happy, what is driving you to make good and bad choices, is a good idea.”

17. As she proved on the runway for the spring 2015 Huntress collection, Gina Torres is not scared of dogs.

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18. Gina Torres threw herself into a Hannibal role that was not only challenging because [no spoilers] reasons but also because she was playing opposite her real-life partner Laurence Fishburne as the wife of his character Jack Valance.

19. She inspires new levels of fan art:

20. She plays the best villain ever in Season 4 of Angel. Take us, Jasmine! We’ll come willingly.

21. As Jessica in Suits, she is frequently seen as an inspiration by women in business. Her take on it: “What I get in terms of reaction from other women in business … when I talk to other female attorneys who are in fact at the head of their own firms, they’re so grateful and happy to see themselves in some way being portrayed on screen.”

22. As a woman of colour and Cuban descent, Gina’s character in Suits is doubly rewarding for both Latina actresses and Latina women in the world of business. And what does Gina think about that? She right believes her characters helps make “TV look the way the world looks – it’s past time for that!

23. We probably don’t really need an Expendabelles movie, but if we did it should have Gina Torres in it.

24. In any upcoming Star Trek movie it would probably be a good idea to put Gina Torres in the captain’s chair.

25. An episode of The Chew reveals she can make swordfish paillard. Come on now, can anyone make swordfish paillard? Oh wait, yes, Gina Torres can!

26. She’s in a position to be a shining light on issues of diversity, and she steps up to be that shining light:

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(Courtesy of tkeiralea)

27. Gina Torres is true to herself. Not an idealised Twitter version of herself. She is not on social media. That is… courageous and rare.

28. She wears T-shirts like this:

29. Thanks to Vinyl Pops you can have your very own Zoe Wahsburne.

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30. Power comes in many forms. This form is the kind of power we love.

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