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Thandie
Newton: Run Fatboy Run
Interview with Kam
Williams
Born in London on
November 6, 1972, Thandiwe Newton spent some of her
formative years in Zambia with her Zimbabwean mother,
Nyasha, and her British father, Nick. However, political
unrest would prompt the family to relocate to England
where Thandiwe would attend the University of Cambridge.
After a back injury
curtailed her plans for a career in dance, she dropped
the “w” from her name when she turned her attention to
acting. In 1991, the regal beauty made her screen debut
in Flirting, an Australian film featuring another then
unknown, Nicole Kidman.
Thandie has since proven
herself to be one of the most talented thespians around,
delivering very memorable performances in such pictures
as
Crash,
Beloved,
Besieged,
Jefferson in Paris,
Mission: Impossible II
and
The Pursuit of Happyness. Recently, the
versatile actress has even mastered comedy, first as the
object of Eddie Murphy’s affection in the $100 million
hit
Norbit, and now as a pregnant woman left at the
altar by Simon Pegg’s character in Run, Fatboy, Run.
As for her private life,
Thandie has been married for ten years to
writer/director Ol Parker. The couple lives in London
where they are raising their two daughters, Ripley, 7,
and Nico, 3. Here, she weighs in on everything from
family life to her new movie to colorblind casting to
the candidacy of Barack Obama.
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KW: Hi Thandie,
I’m honored to have this opportunity to speak with you.
TN: Really?
That’s so lovely.
KW:
Absolutely!
TN: Nice. Is
Kam short for something?
KW: Funny you
should ask. Yes, Kamau, it’s an African name.
TN: Cool!
KW:
I was given the name when I was a jazz musician back in
the Seventies. We were getting ready to record an album
and the leader of the group didn’t want any slave names
on the record cover.
TN:
Wow!
KW:
Over the years, people sort of Anglicized it by dropping
the “au” off.
TN:
How amazing! “Kam” is gorgeous. I love it. My name,
Thandie, is an abbreviation, too, of Thandiwe.
KW:
I knew that. And that it means “beloved.” Ironically,
Beloved might have been your breakout role.
TN:
Yes, I think it probably was.
KW:
I also thought you were terrific in your next picture,
Besieged.
TN:
I loved that film.
KW:
Why did you decide to make your second comedy in a row
with Run, Fatboy, Run?
TN:
Well, I made Norbit, but I still felt that I
hadn’t really been involved in a comedy in terms of
having the experience of just witnessing comedians at
work. Norbit just felt a little claustrophobic.
It didn’t have the kind of freedom or camaraderie that I
thought a comedy should have. And I was keen to work in
England, as I always have been, because my children go
to school there. Plus, I’ve been a fan of Simon Pegg’s
for a number of years. I love the work that he’s done
with Nick Frost, like Shaun of the Dead and
Hot Fuzz. And I just got a sense of [director] David
Schwimmer as a really well-rounded, decent guy from when
he did a play with a friend of mine, Saffron Burrows. I
like working with first-time directors because it’s
often a risk well worth taking. And I loved the
material. So, it was fun!
KW:
One of the things I love about this film is that it’s
hard to pigeonhole.
TN:
I feel the same way. It’s not a romantic comedy. It’s
not a straight drama. It feels much more true to life
than a formulaic comedy. But I also think that Simon has
great timing and a unique kind of humor, reminiscent of
Peter Sellers or Jack Lemmon. He reminds me of those old
school comedians whose brands of humor were much more
authentically a part of their personality, not anything
generic. Simon’s is a combination of physical, creative
and intelligent. His other gift is that he can move from
a strongly comedic moment to one of complete earnestness
which draws you in much more. Ordinarily, comedy is a
detachment from feeling where you turn something into a
joke instead of express how you really feel. That kind
of protects you from being the one with an opinion, if
you know what I mean.
KW:
Right.
TN:
But Simon can get right into earnest emotion very
easily, so the comedy almost allows for the sentiments
to go deeper. I think he’s unique in that respect. In
England, it’s been a while since we’ve found someone who
could cross over and be an international success in
movies. And I just think Simon’s it.
KW:
I think you’re obviously “it” too. I felt that your
performance in Crash was pivotal, and providing
that Oscar-winning Best Picture with its most riveting
and social significant moment by far. That’s why I said
you deserved an Oscar for it.
TN:
Well, there were a large number of very strong
performances that year. I don’t know, ever since
Beloved was snubbed by the industry, and not taken
seriously in that respect, I don’t feel impassioned with
either joy or sadness by getting or not getting
accolades. It’s not part of the way that I value myself.
KW:
I also think that many of the challenging, iconoclastic
characters that you’ve played, in films like Beloved
and Besieged and Crash, aren’t the types
of roles ordinarily recognized by the Oscars.
TN:
The thing about all of those roles, and The Pursuit
of Happyness, as well, is that they make people
uncomfortable, because it goes right to the marrow of
the truth. That is not a popular place to be. With
Beloved, it wasn’t popular to take the lid off
denial. But I like to put myself in that area of
discomfort, because that’s what truly reveals the
essence of what we really are, those areas that you’d
rather ignore and get away from. They’re the ones that I
just want to stare at as long as I can. So, I don’t
mind, even though the Oscar has become the absolute
benchmark for filmmaking talent. I think we can sort of
promote ourselves as individuals. If we feel privileged
to witness a great performance, then that in itself is
enough to feel validated.
KW:
I agree. Plus, the job that you do as a mother is far
more important than acting.
TN:
It is and it isn’t though, Kam, because the truth is
that if you want to be a movie star, you’ve got to work
at it. But I’ve found that in order to ensure longevity,
it’s better to avoid the highs and lows of success. It’s
sort of like surfing where if you stay in the middle of
a wave, you’re going to stick around longer. But if you
get into the dizzying heights, you’ve got to maintain,
and that’s a tough thing to do. I‘ve got two kids, so
I’m quite happy to stay on in the middle, burning my
light a bit brighter here and there. But I love what I
do.
KW:
The Tao teaches that both the very heights and the very
bottom are to be avoided.
TN:
I think that’s true, but I’ll get the old Oscar for all
of us one day.
KW:
I’m sure. Given that you have a parent from Africa, and
one who’s white, I’d love to hear what you think of
Barack Obama’s candidacy.
TN:
I think that it’s wonderful for America to have these
rich choices in whom they vote for. It feels like
there’s evolution happening right in front of us. And I
don’t think it’s just about America but an international
vote for life to have these exciting choices available.
Once a pick has been made, what’s important is to commit
to the changes that these people actually want to put in
place. I think that how Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama
or anyone else is going to benefit the country is far
more complex than the color of their skin or their
gender. So, in a way, it’s been a distraction from
what’s truly necessary which is to get in there and make
real changes.
KW:
I’ve read that you were born in England, and also that
you were born in Africa. Which is correct?
TN:
I was born in London during a brief trip back from
Africa which is where we all lived at the time.
KW:
How do you think growing up in Africa and England, and
having both a black and a white parent has shaped you?
TN:
Oh, God, that would be an hour-long answer to your
question. It provided challenges which have made me who
I am…It provided great wealth in terms of having this
great-colored skin, and looking exotic, and different.
However, it also made for a very lonely disposition as a
child, at times. Being an outsider has its good and its
bad. There’s a ying and yang to all of it. Having to
negotiate that kind of winding road has made me much
more inquisitive about psychology, and interested in
investigating myself and the parameters that people set
up around themselves and others. It’s a privilege, in a
way, to have had to question my identity. By virtue of
being unconventional, I was exploring that from a
very young age. And I feel glad about that. But by the
same token, if I hadn’t had the strength of character
and some real pluses, like getting involved in the arts,
for example, where differences can be celebrated, I
could have been a very depressed, a very closeted, and a
very unhappy person. But I see these challenges and
negative experiences as gifts, at least I do now,
anyway. [Laughs] So, I’ve been showered with gifts, and
I’m glad of that. Life is about being uncomfortable and
about how we deal with those areas of discomfort. I’m
sorry I’m not answering your question, but it’s such a
gigantic question, and one that I can’t answer briefly.
KW:
No, this was an excellent answer, given our time
constraints. Another thing I really liked about Run,
Fatboy, Run was its colorblind casting.
TN:
I love that not one journalist has questioned my son in
the movie looking so light. In real life, I have one
blonde child, and one dark-haired child. One of my
daughters is olive-skinned, like me, and my other is
very pale-skinned. Their faces are similar, but they
have different coloring. 30 or 40 years ago, it would
have been noted, and someone would’ve complained,
saying, “She couldn’t have a kid that color.” So, I do
love that the casting hasn’t been questioned in England
[where it opened last September] and I’m interested in
seeing how it is accepted in the United States. I wonder
whether black audiences will want to see the movie.
KW:
I certainly hope so, not only because it’s very funny,
but to support colorblind casting and the idea that you
can have you and Simon Pegg paired in a romantic comedy
without skin color having to be the theme. So, I’m
asking all my readers to support it.
TN:
You do it, Kam!
KW:
Bookworm Troy Johnson was wondering what’s the last book
you read?
TN: Oh my Lord!
What was the last book I read? Oh, it was a book by my
friend, Justine Picardie, called Daphne. It’s
about Daphne du Maurier and the Bronte family.
KW:
Lastly. are you ever afraid?
TN:
No.
KW: Well,
thanks again for the interview, Thandie, and best of
luck in the future.
TN: Thanks you
so much. Take care, bye!
* * *
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays
Edited by
Miriam DeCosta-Willis
Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a
collection of fourteen essays by scholars and
creative writers from Africa and the Americas.
Called one of two significant critical works on
Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late
1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of
Carter G. Woodson and
Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as
well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations
were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early
essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish
medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an
historical context for understanding 20th-century
creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone
writers, such as Cuban
Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist,
and scholar
Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the
significance of Negritude in Latin America. This
collaborative text set the tone for later
conferences in which writers and scholars worked
together to promote, disseminate, and critique the
literature of Spanish-speaking people of African
descent. . . .
Cited by a
literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the
field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which
most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."
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* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 26 March 2008
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