Hawaii Five-0's Michelle Borth on How She Danced Her Way Into Her Role in Shazam!

A lot of secrecy goes into the making of superhero movies. So much so, that the cast is often required to sign a non disclosure agreement and, even then, they often only receive the part of the script that applies to their character.

So, imagine going in to audition for such a role with only three pages of dialogue, no clue as to who the character is or what movie it is, and the single direction from the casting director is to dance to the dialogue.

That's exactly what happened to Michelle Borth, who auditioned for the role of Mary Marvel, the grown up superhero version of Mary Broomfield, in Shazam!, the story of a streetwise 14-year-old foster kid who can turn into the adult superhero Shazam (Zachary Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard.

"I was like, 'What? What kind of dance?  What kind of character,'" Borth tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. "My agents are like, "Michelle, we know nothing. We are so sorry. Just do the best you can and we’ll see where this goes." I was like, "Okay."

The Hawaii Five-0 star got the word of her Monday audition on a Friday, so she spent that entire weekend on YouTube memorizing John Travolta’s Saturday Night Fever dance. But even after learning the whole thing, it wasn't long enough, so she added her own spin, wrapping up with an interpretive dance, which she describes as fluttering butterfly arms and very poetic movements.

"I was, 'You know what? I’m just going to have fun,'" she recalls. "I went in and asked some questions. She’s like, 'I’m sorry, we can’t give you anything. Let’s just see what you have.' I did it, they loved it, and that was it. I walked out. Never heard anything again."

Three months later, she got a phone call from everyone on her team, saying, "Remember that really weird audition? That was actually for DC Comics. They’re going to revise Captain Marvel as Shazam, and they want you as Mary Marvel.

"I was like, 'Oh, my God, that’s fantastic. So when do I read for producers? When do I screen test? When do I go through the process? I want to get ready,' and they’re like, 'No, you’re done.'"

The good news didn't register immediately. It took her team a while to make Borth understand that the role was hers. And when it finally sunk in, she cried hysterically for 10 minutes.

"It was tears of joy, but it was just so overwhelming," she says. "I had never gotten a role from one taped audition, let alone a five-picture deal with Warner Bros. from a one-tape audition. You always have to go through a really long process. There’s a fight to get there, so it was a really incredible moment. That’s all I can say. It was one of those really magical moments of, 'Oh, my God. You hear about this sometimes. Every now and then, this happens,' and that was mine. I did a great dance, an interpretive dance, and had a lot of fun with it, and then forgot, and that was it."

Shazam has cleaned up at the box office the past two weekends, so while it is too early to say if Warner Bros. will pick up Borth's option for all five films, there is little doubt she will be revisit her role as Mary Marvel in at least one sequel.

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This is a different kind of superhero movie because we see it through the eyes of a child. It almost felt as if it should be animated like The Incredibles.

I agree. Yeah, I think it definitely stands apart from any of the other DC films that they’ve done so far, and even Marvel, for that fact. First of all, it’s an origin story to introduce you to this character, Shazam, and, I think, it’s really different because it’s got a lot of heart and soul. It’s more of a comedic film that has superhero elements to it at the end, but it reminds me more of a kickback to Big. So, I think that that’s what’s making it different because it’s a lot more fun.

My frame of reference for the word Shazam is just that it's a magic word, but I had no idea that he was a superhero. How about you? Were you familiar with this character at all?

To be completely honest, I wasn’t. I was familiar with Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel. Those are the only two that I was semi familiar with. It wasn’t until I got into the history of it, which is fascinating to me, that I learned the fact that Captain Marvel was originally a DC character. This is wonderful for all the comic books nerds and enthusiasts who know this. I know they’re really going to love that we’re going back there to find out that this is actually from DC. The whole origin story comes from the magician Shazam, who gives them these magical powers.

When Marvel came out with their Captain Marvel isn't that when they changed it to Shazam?

As far as I know, how it works is that it was created back in the ‘30s, and then DC had some financial issues in the ‘40s or ‘50s, and Marvel came along and wanted to license the rights to the name Captain Marvel. I guess DC needed the money, so they licensed the rights to Marvel for whatever reason, and Marvel just ran with it and it became somewhat of a Marvel character. At some point, I think, they did a transaction where Captain Marvel became a Marvel name, which is why we have to call our guy Shazam.

So, now you’re Mary Marvel, the grownup superhero version of Mary Broomfield. What is it that you like about her? Since this is Shazam's origin story, we didn't see a lot of her.

The cool thing about Mary is the younger Mary, who’s played by Grace Fulton, who’s amazing, is she's really uptight. She’s a teenager who grew up too fast. She's almost like a second mother to her foster brothers and sisters, and she has lost the capability of just relaxing, having fun, and letting loose and being a teenager.

So what’s fun for me, I get the best part of Mary, because when we all change into superheroes, we all have different things that we make up for, and for Mary, when she turns into Mary Marvel, she knows how to have fun. She’s got her confidence back. She knows how to let her hair down. She knows just how to embrace life, and she’s not so worried anymore.

We shot a lot and it’s a long movie. It’s an origin film. There’s a lot to put in, so a lot got cut for everybody. What we didn't see, which I’m sure if we get a sequel, we’ll see, is that when she’s fighting the monsters, she’s taunting them. She’s like, "Yeah, you want more? You want to come back for me? Okay, let’s do this again," and she’s laughing while she’s punching these monsters out. She’s having a blast and singing, and that’s where the dance stuff comes in.

Now the whole audition makes sense to me because there was no reference before, and now, going back to the audition, it made sense. They wanted someone who acted like a teenager, who could have fun. If we do do the sequel, you’re going to see more of the teenage part of her that we don’t really see in the first one.

The movie asks the question, which superpower would you want: flight or invisibility? Which one for you?

So that was a big question all around set while we were shooting and everyone actually picked something different. We had it whatever you wanted it to be, and everyone picked something different. Grace wanted to heal people, and everyone else had something. Mine was invisibility, 100 percent.

I want to be the creep, but not in a creepy way. I want to use my invisibility for good. People are like, "Well, what would you do?" And I’m like, "I want to be invisible because I just want to stand in the Oval Office and I want to hear what happens when no one’s around. Genuinely, I would go to Washington, D.C.

I wouldn't go creep around celebrity’s houses. I would go to Washington, D.C., and I would sit in some lonely chairs in Congress. I want to know what’s happening. When they were doing the Mueller report, I just want to sit in the office, be invisible, and hear what’s going on. That’s it. I would use my invisibility power for political good. That’s what I want to do, I swear.

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I’m a huge Hawaii Five-0 fan. I really do want to see McGarrett (Alex O'Loughlin) and Catherine end up together at the end. If they know the end is coming, would you go back and wrap up that story if that’s what show runner Peter Lenkov wants to do?

I absolutely will. I’ll say this much, the show will go on as long as Alex wants to do it, and Alex wants to do it. The truth of the matter is that I don’t have so much say. People think that it’s me. It’s really that Peter has the grand scheme in his head, and he’s had it in his head since season one, to be honest. This is a really important relationship to the show. The fans love them.

It’s like Romancing the Stone or Indiana Jones, like the relationship between Indie and Marion, they have one of those relationships that never ends. They’re just madly in love. Even in the last Indiana Jones, they bring Marion back, and that’s like 15 years later. So, that’s what I’m hoping for, and in my opinion, that’s what Peter wants.

Off topic, but let me just say that I love that you rescue older dogs.

The love of my life, I had for 17 years. He was like my soul mate. I got him when he was a puppy, and I was lucky and blessed enough to have had this dog in my life for 17 years, but the last three or four years was so much work that I had not anticipated.

No one tells you, "Hey, look, they get older, and then it takes a lot of work." Different medications for arthritis, for sight, and for hearing. You have to take them to specialists to make sure their liver’s okay and their heart’s okay, and they need a lot of love and care.

To me, they’re just lovely, old souls at that time, and they just want companionship, so there’s a lot of great services that actually connect elderly people in homes with elderly dogs for companionship, and it’s a beautiful thing.

They did this study through this service that when the people die or the dog dies, the other usually dies within two months, which I thought was fascinating. So, ever since I lost mine, it’s kind of a tribute to my first dog, and I love them dearly. I love the old dogs.