Shira Haas Is Ready for Her Marvel Debut
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 , 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.
