When the miniseries Unorthodox dropped on Netflix in 2020 at the height of the global pandemic, Israeli actress Shira Haas became an overnight sensation. Both audiences and critics were enamored with her performance as Esther Shapiro—a young Hasidic Jewish woman who flees her arranged marriage to start a new life in Europe—and suddenly, she was on every “ones to watch” list out there. A Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie and a spot on Forbes‘s 30 Under 30 list followed. That kind of breakout role and recognition can change the course of one’s career and open doors once deemed unthinkable—like, for example, joining the coveted Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Haas was in Leeds filming another project for Netflix, the 2023 genre-defying crime series Bodies, when her agents called saying that director Julius Onah wanted to meet with her about something having to do with the MCU. “I was like, ‘Oh my god!'” Haas tells me. The two met via Zoom, as Haas and I are meeting today, and had a “wonderful conversation” about everything from their families to food and favorite films. Before hopping off the call, Onah casually dropped that he was directing the forthcoming Captain America film—the latest installment of the Captain America franchise starring Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, and Harrison Ford—and that there was a potential character for her named Ruth Bat-Seraph, but he left her only with that.
“We finished [the conversation], and I was like, ‘What does it mean?!'” Haas recalls with a laugh. A few days later, her team called to tell her she got the role. No audition needed.
When I ask if a superhero film was on her acting bucket list, she tells me, “Marvel has always been this big deal. It’s a dream, but I never thought about that because, What are the odds?” Pretty good, it turns out. The actress could barely contain her excitement over the news but had to hide the top-secret casting from family, friends, and her Bodies crew for months until it was finally announced in the fall of 2022.
While plot details for any Marvel projects are notoriously kept under lock and key until the project’s release, what we know about Ruth is that she’s a reimagined version of a character that first appeared in the Incredible Hulk comics. In Captain America: Brave New World, she is a former Black Widow turned high-ranking government official and close ally to President Thaddeus Ross (Ford).
What Haas can tell us about Ruth, which isn’t much, is that “she’s super strong, a true badass, and a mission-oriented, ‘eyes on the ball’ kind of woman” who joins Captain America (Mackie) on his journey to solve an international crisis. She also says that we can expect to see some awesome action sequences involving the character. “That’s all I can say. I’m sorry,” she adds.
Haas has gone so far as to shave her head and learn Yiddish for a role, but the physical preparation required for Captain America is unlike anything she’s done for a project before. Two or three months before filming, Haas started an intense training program, which included working out five times a week and implementing a special diet to help her gain muscle. Once they got to Atlanta to start shooting, she began stunt training. “I didn’t have the script yet, so being able to actually feel strong and be the character helped me to better approach the project and the role,” she says.
The actress also curated a list of songs, images, and quotes that evoked Ruth to help with her creative process and get into the mindset of the character. She likened Ruth to a feral street cat—deeply loyal yet fiercely independent—and says “No Roots” by Alice Merton was a big song on the playlist. When she says the song title aloud, it dawns on her that it sounds a lot like “Ruth,” a happy coincidence.
It’s not lost on Haas that, in playing Ruth, she’s not only joining an elite group of female MCU characters, but she’s also part of the small and mighty class of Black Widow graduates in that world, which includes Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). “I think I’m part of a pretty badass club in terms of characters and also actresses,” she says. “I mean, they are the best.”
Haas has been welcomed into the MCU with kind, collaborative arms. From having grounded day-to-day chats with Ford to being able to voice her opinions and ideas to the producers, director, and crew, the actress is walking away with an amazing learning experience that she’ll take with her into future projects.
The dream as an actor is to have the opportunity to show as much of yourself as possible and explore a range of genres, roles, accents, and emotions. This is something Haas has already had the good fortune to do in her career thus far, bouncing from a heart-wrenching drama to a British sci-fi spy series to a West End musical to the action-packed MCU. What’s next? I can’t wait to find out!
Captain America: Brave New World is in theaters now.
Photographer: Shane McCauley
Stylist: Jamie Mizrahi
Hairstylist: Jenny Cho
Makeup Artist: Kara Yoshimoto Bua
