Hawkeye's Alaqua Cox Talks Maya Lopez, Tracksuit Mafia in Marvel Studios Collector Special (Exclusive)

Alaqua Cox / Maya Lopez

In her very first acting role, Alaqua Cox plays Maya Lopez – the leader of the Tracksuit Mafia. Cox recalls how she first heard about the role and talks about the impact the character has had on the deaf community.

How did you come to audition for the role of Maya Lopez?

First off, I'm from Wisconsin. I'm on the Menominee Native Reservation. I grew up there on the reservation my whole life. I never thought about being an actor until somebody sent me a link [to a casting site saying] they needed a female native, athletic, deaf person. And they're like, "This fits you! This is exactly who you are." And I looked at it, and I thought, "No, it's alright." Then another friend sent me the same link. And then a third friend sent me the link. So I thought, "Fine, I'll go ahead and apply."

I emailed them, and they replied pretty quickly. Then we had correspondence, and they just wanted to know about me in a video. Then I had my first audition. I sent a video to them, and the rest of it is history.

Acting Advantages

Are there advantages to being so new to acting?

Well, yes and no. Honestly, I was very nervous because I didn't know what I was doing as far as acting goes. It was such a new world to me. So coming in was definitely daunting. There was a lot of information that always came towards me, and sometimes I wanted that information filtered out. But I learned new things every day.

What has this experience meant to you?

On the last day, I just felt sad. After hugging people and saying goodbye, [I felt] so happy and excited, so many mixed emotions. But this opportunity means so much to me. I've met so many amazing and wonderful people, and it's been such an amazing experience.

Tracksuit Mafia

The Tracksuit Mafia is the crazy tracksuit-clad crime organization that wreaks havoc across New York City. Aleks Paunovic, Carlos Navarro, and Piotr Adamczyk, who play senior mafia members Ivan, Enrique, and Tomas, recall how they became real-life bros while working on the show.

The Tracksuit Mafia seem to enjoy making fun of Hawkeye...

Carlos Navarro: Yeah, I think this is the first time in MCU history where you have the villains straight-up making fun of a Super Hero to their face. There are several times where we're busting his balls.

Aleks Paunovic: It's great because they don't really take themselves too seriously, which made it so much fun for us.

Let's talk about those tracksuits...

Piotr Adamczyk: I had big expectations when I got the first text from Costumes [saying], "We have an exceptional costume for you..." The costume guy had to do this costume thousands and thousands of times.

AP: The tracksuit's great, but I [also] had alligator shoes.

PA: That means he's the boss.

AP: When they showed me those shoes, I was like, "I am in love with these."

CN: I got broke-down Vans.

Did you get time to build chemistry?

CN: Man, we were real lucky. We had about a month where we weren't shooting that much and we just spent a lot of time together. It really did build a lot of chemistry. These are my bros. I know it sounds cheesy, but I love these guys. We talk all the time.

AP: We have a Tracksuit Mafia text thread, and we always keep in contact.

PA: I'm Polish, and I have to thank you guys, because being a foreigner, sometimes it was difficult to understand what was going on on set with the film language slang. You guys, helped me a lot, explaining what needed to be explained.

AP: Bro.

CN: Bro, man.

PA: But, you know, this bond helped us.

AP: Oh, yeah, when we were in New York we really felt it. We were really blessed that we all like each other. We just connected. We talked about the show. We talked about the different things that we could do or what we could bring, and helped each other on set too...

PA: Giving tips, improvising...

CN: Not all the time do you get to a set and meet people who are willing to improvise with you. And that's what happened here. We hit the ground running and were ready to bring that chemistry to the screen.

AP: In the Molotov cocktail scene we just went off and improvised and carried the scene on for another three minutes. We kept on jamming, and it was freezing.

Jeremy Renner

Tracksuit Mafia

Alaqua Cox

Vincent D'Onofrio and Alaqua Cox

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