It’s no secret that Black Panther director Ryan Coogler really loves his wife, Zinzi Evans.
In a recent interview with Hot 97, the blockbuster film creator credited the Mrs. with having a big hand in investing in his dreams, dating way back to when he was in college.
“My wife, she was my girl at the time, [and] they had a software where you could write screenplays,” he told radio hosts Ebro Darden, Peter Rosenburg and Laura Stylez. “I was trying to write in Microsoft Word. It’s impossible because your format gotta be right. I was broke, playing football on the little scholarship money. And my wife scrapped together some cheese and bought me Final Draft, which is the software that you write your movies on. And she got me that.”
Now that’s how you show love and support!
Along with Evans, Coogler also credits a college professor for helping give him the extra nudge he needed to take writing seriously.
“I had a teacher when I was in undergrad. I was in undergrad, playing football, I was trying to go to the league and I was taking school serious because I figured if I didn’t go to the league because I was short, not as fast as I wish I was, I wanted to fall back and have a decent job. I was good in math and science so I was trying to be a chemistry major, so if that fell off I could go to med school or something. Then I had a teacher read something I wrote in creative writing class. And she was like, ‘You should write movies.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ She was like, ‘No, I really think you should get into it.’ She is kind of who put me…”
Shoutout to the women in Ryan’s life who helped push his dreams forward or we’d never have Fruitvale Station, Creed or Black Panther!