Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny's CIA Agent Mason Originally Had An 'Offensive' And 'Problematic' Final Scene
This post contains spoilers for "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."
James Mangold's new film "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" is set in 1969 and catches up with the title character as he is approaching the age of 80. Although it seemed like his adventuring days were behind him, he is suddenly and unexpectedly roped into a new globe-trotting quest thanks to a magical widget — Archimedes' Antikythera, the titular dial — coveted by both his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and a wicked ex-Nazi scientist named Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). While Helena and Indiana are admiring one half of the dial in a university archive, Voller's men break into the place and murder a bunch of teachers. The murderers, we later learn, are working for the government as well as Voller. It seems that Voller is being aided by the CIA and a team of shady mercenaries-for-hire.
The CIA is represented by the stylish and assertive Agent Mason, played by actress Shaunette Renée Wilson from the medical TV series "The Resident." Mason has several scenes where she asserts control over Voller and tries to stay abreast of the surreal, ancient-artifact-focused shenanigan she is embroiled in. Sadly, early in the film, Mason becomes too righteous for the evil Voller, and she is murdered by the villain first-hand. The character still left an impression, however, and Wilson gave a good performance in the few scenes she had.
Although Mason was murdered unceremoniously, it seems her death was originally a lot worse. In a recent interview with Variety, Wilson revealed the trust put in her by director Mangold, and how he listened when she wanted to script altered to provide Mason with a death that was less "problematic."
The problematic death
Wilson, incidentally, played one of the Dora Milaje in the 2018 film "Black Panther." That's her on the left in the picture above.
While being interviewed by Variety on the red carpet of "Dial of Destiny," Wilson revealed how elated she was to be working on an Indiana Jones movie, and how much faith Mangold had in her. She didn't even need to audition; Mangold wanted her to play Agent Mason right away. Wilson doesn't reveal exactly what happened to Agent Mason in an early version of the script, other than to say it was a problem for her. It seems her character might have died in a much less dignified way, and might have even bore the brunt of a Nazi's vitriolic language. Luckily, Mangold was open to a rewrite. Wilson said:
"I was quite impressed by a lot of things, but I also had thoughts and wanted to make input about my character in particular. And the brilliance and wonder of James Mangold is his ability to collaborate, and he heard me out and he was very honest about it and took what I said and it was implemented in rewrites. That has been a wonderful part of this process — to actually be able to feel like you are integral and you have a point of view when it comes to what's being written."
Her issues were, she revealed, some of the wording surrounding Mason's murder:
"I don't want to spoil too much, but my character had a particular way of exiting the film. And initially I found it to be a little too offensive and a bit problematic, and I was like, 'We probably don't need to say these words or have it done this way, and this is something I'm uncomfortable with.'"
Making the change
Luckily, not only was Mangold operating in a milieu of collaboration, but he also noticed that Mason's death was offensive and problematic. According to Wilson, he even said so and was pleased to make the changes she asked for:
"He was like, 'You know what, you're completely right, I hear you. That's something I flagged as well.' And we were able to work on that."
Without further details, one can only speculate what words were in that original draft, but Voller's view of Black people was set up earlier in the film when he asked a Black hotel worker some offensive questions about his background and laid out a few racist microaggressions. Perhaps Voller might have said something more pointedly racist while gunning down Agent Mason. Even coming from a Nazi, that kind of language would have been discomforting in a PG-13-rated adventure film. Wilson was correct to ask for a change, and Mangold was correct to listen.
With credits like "Black Panther," "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," and a few episodes of "Billions" under her belt, Shaunette Renée Wilson is an actress on the rise. One might keep an eye out for additional high-end studio projects in the future. Agent Mason certainly was striking.