In Captain America: Civil War (2016), actress Alfre Woodard plays grieving mother Miriam Sharpe, who blames the death of her son on MIT alum Tony Stark (Iron Man) and confronts him at the Institute. Their encounter forces Stark to rethink his views on the actions of the Avengers and to eventually sign the Sokovia Accords.

Scene Summary

Miriam Sharpe spent her career working for the human resources department of the State Department while also raising her son Charlie Spencer. Sharpes' son decided that he would spend his summer before beginning work as a computer programmer going overseas to Sokovia to build houses for the underprivileged living there. However while he was there, Ultron had a long battle against the Avengers, during which Spencer was killed when a building was dropped on top of him. Sharpe was heartbroken but turned her pain into great anger, aimed towards the Avengers who she held responsible for her son's tragic death.

Sharpe tracked down [MIT alum] Tony Stark, the creator of Ultron, who was [delivering a lecture on his latest holographic therapy technology and creation of the September Foundation Grant to fund every project at MIT]. Sharpe found Stark in the downstairs corridor waiting for his elevator, and commented on his recent presentation. Now engaged in conversation with him, Sharpe reached into her purse to pulled out a photograph of her son, which Stark briefly mistook as her reaching for a weapon to attack him with, and explained that her son had been killed during the Battle of Sokovia, announcing that she held him and the Avengers responsible for his death.

[In the comic-book version, Sharpe] managed to change Tony Stark's views on the Superhuman Registration Law by giving Stark her son's favorite toy, an Iron Man action figure, and became an advocate of Iron Man's stance on the law.

"Miriam Sharpe," FANDOM