During our epic weekend in LA for the AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR red carpet premiere, we also got to interview Victoria Alonso, Marvel Studios’ EVP of Physical Production & AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR Executive Producer. Our interview was more like a bunch of friends sitting around talking.

The first thing she said to us was, “I am best when I’m talking with you, not at you. Everything you want to know about me, you can find. I want to know what you want to know that you can’t find.” In all the interviews I have done, never has anyone started off the conversation like this. It became more like a bunch of girlfriends sitting around chatting, laughing, and even crying. Victoria actually asked us questions and I learned many things about my collegues.

“Mommy, You’re a Change Maker!”

This powerful statement was said to Victoria, by her daughter. Victoria’s eyes lit up when she spoke about her daughter and like any mom, she has to balance being a mom while having a career.

We asked Victoria how she balanced a high level position in Hollywood with being a mom. With all the negativity in the media on Hollywood and women, I expected to hear about her struggles. Her answer was simple.

“I work with a very nice group of men. I said to them I’m going to adopt a child. And one day I will come to you and say I’m going, and I did.  I was packed to go to San Diego for the first biggest Comi-Con of our careers, for Avengers in 2010. We got a call from her birth mom in Chicago and we left.  I called the boys and I said I gotta go. I’m gonna go get my girl. And I did. And I came back a week later with Olivia. And I brought her to work for 18 months, three days a week.”

“I encourage Moms and Dads to bring their babies to work.”

A True Change Maker!

I believe Olivia knows her mom best and one day she’ll understand how right she was by calling her mom a change maker.

“I encourage moms.  I’ve created the capability for those that have been with us, if they wanna go have babies, all they have to do is say it. I’ll figure out how it will work, and then they can return. They can return and have the same job. Not three steps below because they went away for whatever time. They were capable before, they’re more capable now.

And if they have to leave at five, which is not a production time to leave, they go.  When I need an email, a text, a phone call answered, they do it. Moms work incredibly hard. After we put our kids to bed, we’re still working. So, I know I’m getting the devotion and the dedication from those moms. So, I love it. You can’t just talk the talk. You gotta walk it. The men that work with us are incredibly aware of what we need to do. Change is slow. I’m rather impatient, I must tell you.”

Victoria changes the way we look at challenges and how women can do anything!

View a challenge not as a challenge but as a hurdle!

 “…to me a challenge is like something you can’t achieve where a hurdle is something you just need to jump over and go…” 

As our conversation progressed, tears filled the entire room and there was a lot of hugging. Our chat became a room full of women who were uniting.

“Listen, I think that women need to believe in their core that they’re equal. Because I see it in my daughter at seven, and, boy, she’s gonna take it over. And there’s a shift somewhere along the way, I think when they turn between 12 and 15. And something shifts. 

You gotta believe it in your heart. You do.

I think it’s not only to do it for our children but to do it for ourselves. And I think as moms, we forget who we are ’cause all we do is mom. And you mother this and you mother that and you parent this and you parent that and you forget who you are as a human being along the way. Because it takes all we got to parent.

I don’t know that I know exactly how to instill that in a child. But I can tell you this. Expose them to stories that you in your true, true self believe that will inspire you, and it will go in and it will inspire them. Show them all kinds of art. Show them all kinds of music. Show them the differences of this world, because I look at the room and I see you’re all very different women. And you’re all moms.

And the one thing that unites us really is the love. For our family, for our partners, for our children, for our country, for whatever. Whatever it is the love that you feel. It doesn’t divide us. I mean that’s really Black Panther. It’s the love of country, the love of people, the love of kingdom.”

“I think that women need to believe in their core that they’re equal.” that way we can instill that belief in our daughters especially when a shift happens as they get older that may make them believe otherwise.

Victoria shared words of wisdom from her mom!

“If it has been done, it can. And if it hasn’t been done, it should.”

Victoria a powerful woman living in a man’s world tells us not to try to be like the men, be true to who you are!

“I just think be yourself. Don’t try to be a boy. I have never wanted to be a man. I’ve never wanted to be like them. I never wanted to do it like them. The strength is being who you are. Hands-down. That’s what makes you different. That’s what you bring to the table. But when you go to that table, you sit at that table, not on the side, not behind. You sit at the table and own it…”

What movies does a Marvel executive watch

“I’m not a comic book fan. I love our movies, but La La Land or Juno or 12 Years a Slave or Moonlight, I would rather go see those movies than a superhero movie. I do see our movies, because I think they have a heart and they have a message. And they have more than one message, and it’s really up to you to see it. You can peel [Marvel] movies like an onion, and find it, and find it, and eventually you might cry.” Victoria did let us know that she cried three times while watching Avengers: Infinity War

This was one of the most powerful conversations I have heard. She left us all with positive views of ourselves as well as the paths we are taking. She has worked on every Marvel movie since the first one ten years ago, Iron Man and hasn’t stopped. She currently has 5 in the works.

Avengers: Infinity War (which is now in theaters) is a must-see movie!

I loved how humble Victoria was and yet how strong she was. She is truly someone for young women and other women to look up to. It was a true pleasure to meet her!

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