Avengers: Endgame Star Tessa Thompson Shares Swimsuit Photo of "Sweater Weather"

1. Putting On Muscle

Thompson put on muscle for her role as Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. “I gained about 15 pounds of muscle mass, which yeah, it was a lot for me,” she says. “I like sort of bucking this conventional idea of a woman is beautiful or sexy if she’s sort of thin. She’s felt, but you can’t really see her strength. I like the idea that she can just be ripped, like Valkyrie is in the comics. Yeah, I found that sort of essential, that not really caring about how I looked, but caring more about how I felt. I felt so strong, and in my skin.”

2. Loving Those Muscles

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Thompson loved how strong the muscle made her feel. “It felt great!” she says. “Yeah, it felt great. Particularly for the five months that I was there, and I was working on the stage where did all the stunt choreography and the likes of folks like Chris Hemsworth. It felt good to be able to be on par with everyone around me.”

3. At-Home Beauty Masks

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Thompson learned how to make at-home face masks during the pandemic. “I would take goat yogurt and put turmeric in it,” she says. “It stained my fingers, which was fine because I had nowhere to go. I would use that as a mask, which was amazing. I have also newly discovered how incredible apple cider vinegar is. It's amazing for your hair, for your skin — I recently had a bunch of mosquito bites, it helped with that. I also use it as a toner sometimes.”

4. No-Makeup Makeup

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Thompson loves the no-makeup makeup look. “I think makeup should enhance what exists,” she says. “I put my foundation on with my fingers, although sometimes I'll use a sponge. I don't like to wear a ton of foundation in my everyday life. I wear so much makeup when I'm working, that it's really nice to give my skin some time to breathe. Typically, I like to use moisturizer and then mix a little foundation into it and make a little cream. That's what I'll use all over my face. Sometimes, I want to cover up areas of hyperpigmentation, so I'll go in with a little foundation. Sometimes I'll cheat and buff it in with a little blending brush, like one that you would use for eyeshadow so it's really, really blended.”

5. Reinventing Valkyrie

Thompson is proud of her reinvention of Valkyrie. “We had lots of conversations about diversity and inclusion,” she says. “It shouldn’t all be rhetorical. I think it’s important the films that we make reflect the times that we live in, to realize that big movies have the power to also shift culture. I think it’s really great that young comic book readers that look like me can see themselves in a film. I think it’s about time.”