Tracee Ellis Ross was a little nervous ahead of her first TED Talk last month, so she dreamed up an idea to kick off the talk with a "Wakanda Forever" salute to calm her nerves.
But to make sure she wasn't in on this alone, she asked a few of the fellow black attendees to join her in the exchange or at least not to "leave [her] hanging," as she said on Late Night with Seth Meyers. The plan to get a bit of "Wakanda juice" seemed to be working as she went around enlisting others in her plan.
At one point she went up to a bearded man, who she thought could be her future husband at first until she met his wife. With love off the table, she went on to ask him to join her Wakanda Forever salute. It was a "little awkward," but she moved on. Unbeknownst to Ross (until her friend told her afterward), she was talking to Ryan Coogler AKA Black Panther's director AKA the man who likely came up with the Wakanda Forever salute in the first place. Yikes.
"She's like 'Oh My God.' I"m like 'What?' She was like 'I cannot believe that I just met Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther. I was like 'Where was he?!'" relayed Ross. "She was like 'what are you talking about? That's who you just asked to Wakanda Forever." Face palm.
They tried to find him again but Ross said he "disappeared into Wakanda." It's moments like these that keep us humble.
