By Gill Pringle and Chelsea Wick

After graduating from the Berkeley School of Music, Sofia Boutella began to make her mark on the entertainment industry by touring with Madonna and Rihanna and appearing in Usher and Michael Jackson music videos. The movie world was stricken with her unique presence as Gazelle in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Jaylah in Star Trek Beyond. Now Boutella takes on her highest profile role yet in Universal Studios’ Monster Universe kickstarter, The Mummy.

So, you were born in Algeria and moved to France when you were 10. Your dad is a musician and your mum is an architect. What brought you to ballet?

My family is very artistic. My dad is a composer who studied at the Berkeley school of music in Boston where he lived with mum for seven years. Then they moved back to Algeria where they had me. Everybody in my family picked up an instrument, all of us can sing. It was a very free house growing up. We used to have this big corridor that led from the kitchen to the bedroom and when I was younger I used to run up and down it with my crayons and pencils, creating all kinds of squiggles and shapes. My mum never stopped me instead she told me, “That’s your area.” It’s pretty incredible to do that. She always gave me freedom; my Dad always gave me something to play with. I was always encouraged to be creative and do what I want as long as I didn’t disrespect other people. My imagination was always tickled one way or another by my family.

Did you ever go through a rebellious period?

Yeah but that was mostly due to my father not being around after my parents split. When I was fifteen I wanted to start doing hip hop dancing and it could have freaked them out, moving from such a structured way of dancing to one that’s so free-styled, but they just let me. I was taught to question myself though. My dad always told me to do whatever you want but you need to have an argument for it. There was a time when I was questioning all sorts of things like religion and they would not stop me. All they did was open the dialogue and ask me questions. It couldn’t just be an emotion I had to be able to articulate why I made those choices. Similar reason why I did ballet because I had a lot of energy when I was little. When I would go to my grandparents’ place they had a lot of oriental vases because they used to live in China. They would place these super high where I couldn’t reach them because I would run everywhere. I had to let my energy go so, when I was four, my Dad had a friend who taught ballet and thought it would be a good opportunity for me.

What was it like touring with Madonna?

Those were the best years of my life. There’s nothing like it. Touring is very special. I’ve had some incredible experiences with her. She’s a strong woman. She inspired me and she continues to do so. She gave me a chance to have a voice through my dancing. In her shows, she’d give me solos and trusted me. She treats all of her dancers like actors. She’s pretty incredible.

Your character in The Mummy exudes this incredible power and energy. What do you think makes a woman powerful?

Women are emotional beings and I think that whenever you really wound a woman, you attack her pride and the reaction can be worse than what a man would do. In ancient Egypt especially, women were full of this pride and this best represents my character’s motivation. When she was young, her father promised her that she’d become pharaoh but she was deceived. All she knows is honour and respect even if that means killing your father who is in the way. I had to come up with a strong character which needed to come from a strong, rooted power. I did a lot of research about royalty at the time and how someone who commands respect doesn’t raise their voice beyond a certain level and keeps their voice at a certain pace. It took a while but the character came to me. You can’t force it. You’ve just got to do research and get into the right headspace and then one day you will wake up and you think, “Woah. There’s something happening.” I love feeling that shift. It’s so much fun. Tom [Cruise] said to me, “You command the room.”

For your role, did you ever travel to Egypt and visit the tombs or even the British Museum?

I didn’t get to visit Egypt but I got to go to the British Museum. We actually shot part of the movie there as it was also mentioned in the original movie in 1935. I also went to the Louvre to see their Egyptian collection. I can’t wait to go to Egypt though.

You now live in Los Angeles. Did you move here for your career?

Yeah. I moved here when I was 24. At the time, I was on tour with Madonna in Japan and my manager asked where I wanted to go back to. Me and my mum lost our house so we didn’t really have a place to go back to in Paris so just out of spite I said LA. But I’m always working out of town and abroad.

What advice would you give to a woman to develop her strength?

She needs to trust herself and not let anyone make her doubt her beliefs. Not let anyone undermine her. It’s a man’s world; I observe it all of the time. It’s tough to overcome, to understand and not to be beat by it. You need to go for what you believe in. Be nice, be polite, and just be strong because you’re intelligent and you know what you’re talking about. If you have it in your heart and you do things for the right reasons, you can make it. You have to be genuine in your approach to do what you do.

The Mummy is in cinemas June 8, 2017