Thandiwe Newton has apologized to "darker-skinned actresses" in an emotional interview while speaking candidly about the prejudices she has faced as a light-skinned Black British star.
Newton, 49, opened up about her "painful" experiences to the Associated Press. The topic came about as she discussed her new film "God's Country," in which she plays a professor who confronts two white hunters on her property. Newton's character was originally a white man in James Lee Burke's short story, upon which the film is based.
"I now realize that my internalized prejudice was stopping me from feeling like I could play this role, when it's precisely that prejudice that I've received," Newton said. "It doesn't matter that it's from African-American women more than anyone else. It doesn't matter. I received prejudice. Anyone who's received oppression and prejudice feels this character."
Newton said she wanted "so desperately to apologize every day to darker-skinned actresses."
"To say, I'm sorry that I'm the one chosen. My mama looks like you," she continued, before covering her face. "It's been very painful to have women that look like my mom feel like I'm not representing them. That I'm taking from them. Taking their men, taking their work, taking their truth."
While the experiences have been "painful," Newton said she did believe she made a difference with her film career.
"I do think that any women of color who — whether they are pale, or whatever — who have managed to help other actors get into this business, we matter," she said. "Whenever they say that Black women have watched the movie, and it's really, really, really mattered to them, I just thank God that my light skin didn't stop that from happening. That it didn't cause more pain."
In 2020, Newton share similar remarks during an interview with Vulture, explaining that "all these Black people in the public eye who are Black, and you don't think about their white parents."
This, Newton said, was why she only put up photos of her mother on Instagram.
"I don't put my dad up much, and that's because I want Black people to feel they can trust me and feel safe with me — that I'm not a representative of this Establishment that degrades people of color," she added. "All my f*****k career, I felt like, to Black people, I'm not a legitimate Black person."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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