By Joane Amay
A lifetime spent developing a career that keeps her as much on the London stage as the Hollywood film lot is finally paying off for Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Now 30, the transatlantic beauty that was born in Oxford to an English mother and South African father, first caught the acting bug at the age of 11 after playing Dorothy in a school production of the Wizard of Oz. By 17, she was touring with the National Youth Music Theatre in Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods and the musical Pendragon in Japan. By 18, she had enrolled in the prestigious RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art). Successful stints on the popular British television series Doctor Who and Spooks soon followed, but in 2009, her portrayal of Ophelia in the Broadway production of Hamlet with Jude Law caught the eye of Hollywood power players. J.J. Abrams, the creator of Lost, offered her a part in his short-lived TV show Undercovers (alongside Boris Kodjoe); Tom Hanks cast her in 2011’s Larry Crowne with Julia Roberts, and she starred opposite Kiefer Sutherland and Danny Glover in Fox’s drama, Touch.
But after spending years perfecting her American accent on stateside productions, a little bout of homesickness motivated her to accept the title role in the British film Belle, a Jane Austen-esque period piece based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate bi-racial daughter of a British Royal Navy Admiral, who was raised as an aristocratic Lady. “I was absolutely thrilled. I felt this was the role I was meant to play,” Mbatha-Raw says. “It must have been a difficult position for [Dido] to be privileged but still not equal,” she says.
“It’s a very different cultural legacy in the UK and in the US in regards to race and the slave trade – and class, being a big issue in the UK. When you blend those together, it is not just black and white. It really does touch on the greyer area of the nuances in high society in those days.“
Later this year, Mbatha–Raw will trade her corset for a microphone and song sheets when she plays Noni Jean, a troubled pop diva struggling to find her authentic voice in director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s (Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees) passion project, Blackbird. The film, which explores the substratum of the music industry, co-stars Minnie Driver as Noni’s pushy momager and Nate Parker as her love interest. “[This film] is somewhat darker in someways than Belle,” explains the star. “But, they do kind of share themes of identity. These two women are in completely different times, history and context; yet, both are trying to find their place in the world and discover their true identity. It was wonderful to go from one to the other.”
To ensure an authentic portrayal, Prince-Blythewood tapped veteran choreographer Laurieann Gibson (who’s worked with Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and Katy Perry) to help develop Mbatha-Raw’s physicality and mega- producer The-Dream to write original music for the production. “Combined with those two, and with Gina as well, “ gushes Mbatha-Raw, “I really got the chance to explore the underbelly of the music industry.”
And on what she would love to do next, “Parts of me would love to do a massive action film,” she quips. “It would be really cool to be in a big blockbuster. On stage, I would love to play Cleopatra. I would also love to play a gritty adaption of Billie Holiday on screen. I love variety. The next thing you do is a contrast and that is how you grow.”