The last time Danielle Brooks hit the big screen, she was commanding our attention as Sofia in the 2023 movie-musical The Color Purple. Her fierce and unforgettable performance—complete with her own powerful spin on the iconic lines “All my life I had to fight” and “You told Harpo to beat me!”—earned her an Oscar nomination, a BAFTA nod, and a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It was the kind of highbrow, prestige recognition most actors dream of.

Which is exactly why her next move might come as a surprise.

Brooks’ follow-up role? Dawn, a llama-loving mobile zoo owner in the upcoming Minecraft movie. Yes, that Minecraft.

“I like to keep people on their toes when it comes to what Danielle Brooks is going to be doing,” she tells BET.com with a big grin during a recent junket. “And this was definitely one of those things.”

Based on the wildly popular video game, Minecraft stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa as Steve and Garrett. Black plays the over-the-top swashbuckling hero trapped in the pixelated universe, while Momoa is the clueless gamer bro who accidentally gets sucked into the world when his nerdy pal Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen) opens a portal to the Overworld. Soon, Dawn and Henry’s sister Natalie (Emma Myers) find themselves in the strange, blocky terrain, battling bizarre creatures and learning survival skills from Steve in hopes of getting back home.

The film is jam-packed with high-energy action—fighting, diving, dodging danger—and Brooks relished every bit of it.

“It was a lot of fun!,” she says. “I enjoy being harnessed in the air, fighting with swords, fighting the piglets and the zombies and just looking like a badass.”

Though Minecraft the game is nearly 15 years old and holds the title of best-selling video game of all time, with over 204 million active players, Brooks came into the project knowing very little about the game or its complex mythology. And she’s totally fine with that.

“I'm okay with that, because I'm an actor first. But I've learned a lot, and what I really appreciate about gamers is that this is their outlet, this is their escapism. And I feel like everybody should have that,” she explains. “I love to act, and I love to go into different worlds that I would have never been in before, you know, and explore and just use my imagination.”

Her role in Minecraft carries added meaning given how underrepresented Black women still are in the gaming world—even though Black gamers and Black girl gamers are a huge part of the community. Gaming still grapples with stereotypes and gatekeeping, but Brooks is proud to be part of shifting the narrative.

“What's interesting about it is, this world is messed up. It’s hard. Adulting is crap,” she says. “I feel like we need to get back to that inner child. We need to get back to imagination and creativity, because that's what saves us, you know? That's what heals us. I think it's really cool that gamers are building and creating the world that they want and it's actually healthy for people to do that.”

In the film, Brooks’ character Dawn is as nurturing as she is fearless—a caretaker, a motivator, and a reminder of what it means to keep hope alive in the face of chaos.

“She’s trying to survive life the same way we're trying to survive this game at the end of the day. She tries to keep a positive attitude, even though she doesn't know what she's doing,” Brooks says. “But she pours into the other characters, which is very much how we are in these kinds of situations. She knows we’re gonna make it through. And the beautiful thing about the film is that it allows us to spend time with our loved ones, build moments and memories with the people that we love. It’s about community.”

Minecraft opens in theaters on April 4.