Geraldine Viswanathan’s path to Thunderbolts didn’t start with a blockbuster audition or a lifelong dream to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It began with oddball comedy gigs, local theatre, and stand-up sets at uni bars. From small parts in quirky Australian productions to sharing the screen with John Cena in Blockers, Viswanathan quietly built her Hollywood résumé until Marvel called.
When the offer for Thunderbolts came, she wasn’t gunning for the spotlight. In fact, she got the call while sick in bed. Director Jake Schreier pitched her the role of Mel, a sharp, loyal assistant to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s scheming Valentina Fontaine. It was a role vacated by Ayo Edebiri, and Viswanathan stepped in with zero superhero baggage.
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Mel doesn’t shoot lasers or fly, but she holds her own in a cast of enhanced misfits. Always at Val’s side, iPad in hand, Mel becomes more than just an assistant. As Val’s ambitions spiral, Mel starts questioning everything, including her ethics, her boss, and what kind of power she wants to stand behind. Her quiet presence becomes one of the film’s most grounded forces, showing that not all heroes need powers to shift a story’s course.
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Viswanathan, now 29, isn’t pretending to be an overnight sensation. She jokes about bad fashion choices in her early career and remembers emailing her former triple j mentor with a casual, “I think I have to go shoot a movie with John Cena.” That movie, Blockers, changed everything. So did her spot in this unconventional Marvel film.
Thunderbolts isn’t just another superhero showdown. It’s Marvel trying something new with fewer explosions and more soul. Director Schreier brings a style that digs into mental health and trauma without turning it into a TED Talk. Florence Pugh’s Yelena gets one of the most honest emotional arcs Marvel has done, and the film dares to ask: what happens when the “team” doesn’t even like each other?
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There’s pain, banter, regret, and reluctant healing. And in the middle of it is Mel, loyal but torn, sharp but unsure played by Viswanathan with the kind of subtlety that stands out in a world of CGI-heavy action.
No, she’s not flying. But Geraldine Viswanathan’s leap into Marvel might just be one of its most human moves yet.
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