What Hannah Beachler has to say about her historic Oscar nomination for ‘Black Panther’

The New York Times caught up with Beachler about her nomination.

Beachler told the newspaper she found out about the nomination while working on set in Cincinnati on a Todd Haynes film.

"I had to run to the back of the warehouse where the catering was so I could yell," she told the New York Times in an interview. "And then I cried."

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Beachler told the Times she was grateful to the film's director, Ryan Coogler, who has hired her for all of his features.

"When I met him, everything changed," she told the Times. "He's my film-making family."

Their collaborations have included "Fruitvale Station" and "Creed."

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Research has been key to success of all of her film projects, including “Black Panther,” she explained in the interview. That meant studying the ancient ruins of Mpumalanga in South Africa and bringing elements of its design into Wakanda, the fictional setting for "Black Panther." She said, "I started by asking, if there existed a culture that was that advanced, where would they be now?"

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The production designer told the Times she hopes that opportunities for diversity in the industry will continue to advance as well.

"You never think a girl from Ohio, in the middle of nowhere, can get here," she told the Times. "It's a mission to let other girls and women of color know that they can do the same."

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