A familiar face. Miriam Shor looks different as a Recorder Vim in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, but prosthetics and a bald cap wouldn’t stop die-hard Younger fans from recognizing the woman behind Diana Trout.
“Look, I’m a woman in Hollywood, you think I haven’t sat in a chair for three hours just so someone could believe I was a woman walking through the world?” the actress, 51, exclusively told Us Weekly with a laugh. “I have. We’re used to discomfort, but more so, you know, if I’m gonna spend three hours in a makeup chair, I’d rather walk out as a creature from somewhere a billion light years away from here than just like a believable female.”
Shor plays the right hand of the film’s biggest villain, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), who is trying to create the ultimate species for the perfect world. As Recorder Vim, Shor has no hair or eyebrows. She has contacts making her blue eyes nearly white. There’s blue skin on her scalp and some computer hardware embedded on the side of her head. It’s a far cry from Diana’s statement necklaces and power suits — and that was part of the appeal.
“I love acting because I love to really dive into a different world that is not mine. I’m not doing it to play myself over and over again. I’m just not that interesting,” she explained. “The alchemy that happens when you sit at a mirror and you look at yourself and a different person looks back at you is remarkable. It’s a thrill. It changes your mindset. It changes how you walk through the world.”
The three-hour process was also worth impressing her kids. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Shor watched every single Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with daughters Ruby and Iris — who she shares with husband Justin Hagan — starting with 2008’s Iron Man all the way up to the most recent releases. (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the 32nd film in the MCU.)
“For the record, I’m a giant sci-fi nerd and have always been like through in all areas of the art world — literature, film — it’s my jam,” the Hedwig and the Angry Inch star said. “So, I already loved this world of science fiction, science fantasy. But my oldest daughter who’s 13, was like, listen, we are gonna watch the entire Marvel oeuvre start to finish all the movies in chronological order and that is what we’re doing.”
The experience was unforgettable not only because she was bonding with her girls but also because of the surprise call she got from Marvel shortly after finishing watching the franchise’s entire roster. “The conversations we had were shockingly profound around these movies. And fun. It was everything. We finished watching the final one, and two weeks later, I get a call [asking if I’m] interested in Guardians of the Galaxy,” Shor told Us.
Being part of something her daughters love is “pretty special,” and she genuinely enjoyed her coworkers. She and Nico Santos, who portrays a fellow henchman, had fun singing and dancing between takes and making director James Gunn laugh. She’s even set to reunite with one of her Guardians costars — Bradley Cooper. He plays Rocket Raccoon, who has a long history with the High Evolutionary and Recorder Vim in the new blockbuster. Shor will join him in Maestro, his Leonard Bernstein biopic.
“I only work with Bradley Cooper now. Either as a space raccoon or a musical genius, so who knows what he’ll do next, but clearly I’ll have to be there,” Shor joked. “I play Cynthia O’Neal, who was a person who was near and dear to the Bernsteins, particularly Felicia, who is Leonard Bernstein’s wife. … It’s not like anything I’ve experienced or seen. His thorough — and I say this with so much love — obsession with the story is gonna be something unlike anything. So, it’s very exciting to be a part of that. And he’s just a dreamboat of a human being.”
She’s also set to star in Cord Jefferson‘s directorial debate, a still untitled project with Jeffrey Wright. However, Shor would happily revisit Younger (which aired from 2016 to 2021) if the opportunity arises.
“There’s always more to say,” Shor said of a possible Younger reunion. “I certainly feel like there’s more to say about the publishing industry than we scratched the surface on, and this character really resonated with a lot of people. And with me, I learned a lot playing Diana Trout, so absolutely. You know, I miss those guys. You always have this connection and then your lives go off in different ways and you meet up again, and it ebbs and flows. I would always love to see to see everyone.”
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is in theaters now.
