Thandie Newton
Thandie Newton OBE (born Melanie Thandiwe Newton; 6 November 1972) (/ˈtændi/) is an English actress who has appeared in English and American films.
Thandie Newton OBE | |
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![]() Newton at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con | |
Born | Melanie Thandiwe Newton 6 November 1972 Westminster, London, England |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Downing College, Cambridge |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1991–present |
Spouse(s) | Ol Parker (m. 1998) |
Children | 3 |
Newton is known for her starring roles, such as the title character in Beloved (1998), Nyah Nordoff-Hall in Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Christine in Crash (2004), for which she received a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Linda in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Stella in RockNRolla (2008), Condoleezza Rice in W. (2008), Laura Wilson in 2012 (2009), and as Val in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).
Since 2016, Newton has played the sentient android, the madam Maeve Millay, in the HBO science fiction-western series Westworld, for which she earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series and two Critics Choice Awards, as well as Golden Globe Award, Saturn Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. In 2017, she portrayed DCI Roz Huntley in the BBC drama series Line of Duty, which earned her a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.
Newton was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to film and to charity.[1]
Early life
Newton was born in Westminster, London, England, the daughter of Nyasha, a Zimbabwean princess of the Shona people (according to Newton),[2][3] and Nick Newton, an English[4] laboratory technician and artist.[5] Her birthplace has been incorrectly reported to be Zambia in some biographies,[6] but she has confirmed in interviews that she was born in London.[7][8] The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa or Swati, and "Thandie" is pronounced /ˈtændi/ in English.
Regarding her childhood, Newton remarked at a TED conference, "From about the age of five, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly."[9] Newton was brought up in London and Penzance, Cornwall and studied dance at the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. Between 1992 and 1995, Newton attended Downing College, Cambridge, where she studied social anthropology.[10]
Career
![](../I/m/ThandieNewton07TIFF.jpg)
After the film Flirting (1991), Newton played a faithful house slave "Yvette" in the Brad Pitt/Tom Cruise film Interview with the Vampire (1994). Newton appeared in the Merchant Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemings, followed by Jonathan Demme's drama Beloved, based on Toni Morrison's novel (1998), in which she played the title character, the ghost of a young slave girl whose mother murders her to save her from slavery. The film also starred Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Newton then starred as Nyah Nordoff-Hall, again opposite Cruise, in Mission: Impossible 2. Her next role was in the low-budget film It Was an Accident, written by her husband, screenwriter Ol Parker.[11]
Between 2003 and 2005, Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, love interest of John Carter on the American television series ER. She reprised the role for the series finale in 2009. In 2004, she also appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick and Crash. Newton won a BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006 for her role in Crash. She played Chris Gardner's wife, Linda Gardner, in The Pursuit of Happyness. Also in 2006, Newton performed on radio in a pantomime version of Cinderella.[12]
In 2007, Newton co-starred with Eddie Murphy in the comedy Norbit as his love interest, and then opposite Simon Pegg as his ex-girlfriend in the 2008 comedy Run Fatboy Run. Newton next portrayed US National Security Advisor-turned Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in W., Oliver Stone's biography of President George W. Bush. The film was released 17 October 2008.
Newton was an introducer at Wembley Stadium on 7 July 2007, for the UK leg of Live Earth. She was due to introduce Al Gore to the concert, but he was delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes in an attempt to entertain the audience.[13] Newton next portrayed fictional US First Daughter Laura Wilson in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released 13 November 2009.
In July 2011, Newton delivered a TED Talk on "Embracing otherness, embracing myself." She discussed finding her "otherness" as a child growing up in two distinct cultures, and as an actress playing many different selves.[14] In 2012, she starred alongside Tyler Perry in the romantic drama film Good Deeds. In 2013, Newton starred in Rogue, the first original drama series for DirecTV's Audience Network.[15] She left Rogue during the third season. In 2015, she starred in the US miniseries The Slap.
In 2016, Newton began portraying Maeve Millay in HBO science fiction drama series Westworld, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, among other accolades. In 2017, she served as a narrator for the documentary entitled Bill Cosby: Fall of an American Icon, an exposé on the sexual assault charges laid against Cosby, which aired on BBC One. Newton appeared as Val in the Star Wars film Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was released in May 2018.
Personal life
Newton married English writer, director, and producer Ol Parker in 1998. They have three children: daughters Ripley (b. 2000) and Nico (b. 2004), and son Booker Jombe (b. 2014).[16] Newton had home births with all three of her children.[16] She is vegan and was named PETA's "Sexiest Vegan of 2014" in the UK.[17]
In 2006 Newton contributed a foreword to We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of the NSPCC. In it, she wrote vividly about her childhood memories of growing up in Cornwall, and the way in which the county's cultural heritage made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and meaning."[18]
In 2007 Newton sold her near-new BMW X5 and replaced it with a Toyota Prius after Greenpeace stuck a "This gas-guzzling 4x4 is causing climate change" sticker on her BMW.[19] In 2008 Newton visited poverty-stricken Mali, describing it as a "humbling experience." She visited the village of Nampasso in the Ségou Region of the country.[20] In 2013 Newton led the One Billion Rising flash mob in London, for an end to violence, and for justice and gender equality.[21]
David Schwimmer (who directed Run Fatboy Run) called the actress "the queen of practical jokes."[22] Newton has expressed an affinity for Buddhism.[23][24]
In 2016, Newton stated she had been the victim of a director who repeatedly showed his friends a video of her in a sexually-graphic audition which she made as a teenager.[25][26] Newton cited this experience as being a part of why she had taken the Westworld role, which involved substantial nudity, as it mirrored the experiences of survivors of sexual abuse while also asking moral questions about the meaning of humanity and what it means to be humane.[26] In 2018, Newton said she was disappointed not to have been invited to participate in Time's Up, a movement against sexual harassment, considering that she had experienced being "ostracised" for speaking out about alleged sexual abuse by a director.[27]
She was ranked one of the best dressed women in 2018 by fashion website Net-a-Porter[28] and later that year it was announced that Newton was included in the 2019 edition of the Powerlist, ranking the 100 most influential Black Britons. [29]
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | Flirting | Thandiwe Adjewa | |
1993 | The Young Americans | Rachael Stevens | |
1994 | Loaded | Zita | |
1994 | Interview with the Vampire | Yvette | |
1995 | Jefferson in Paris | Sally Hemings | |
1995 | The Journey of August King | Annalees | |
1996 | The Leading Man | Hilary Rule | |
1997 | Gridlock'd | Barbara "Cookie" Cook | |
1998 | Besieged | Shandurai | Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Actress |
1998 | Beloved | Beloved | Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture |
2000 | Mission: Impossible 2 | Nyah Nordoff-Hall | Nominated – Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favourite Female - Newcomer Nominated – Empire Award for Best British Actress Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Nominated – Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress |
2000 | It Was an Accident | Noreen Hurlock | |
2002 | The Truth About Charlie | Regina Lambert | Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Actress Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture |
2003 | Shade | Tiffany | |
2004 | The Chronicles of Riddick | Dame Vaako | |
2004 | Crash | Christine Thayer | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Empire Award for Best Actress Hollywood Film Festival Award for Ensemble of the Year London Film Critics Circle Award for British Supporting Actress of the Year Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated – BET Award for Best Actress Nominated – Black Movie Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture |
2006 | The Interrogation of Leo and Lisa | The Mona Lisa | Short film |
2006 | The Pursuit of Happyness | Linda | Nominated – NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture |
2007 | Norbit | Kate Thomas | |
2007 | Run Fatboy Run | Libby | |
2008 | RocknRolla | Stella | |
2008 | How to Lose Friends & Alienate People | Herself | |
2008 | W. | Condoleezza Rice | |
2009 | 2012 | Laura Wilson | |
2010 | Huge | Kris | |
2010 | Vanishing on 7th Street | Rosemary | |
2010 | For Colored Girls | Tangie | Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Actress |
2011 | Retreat | Kate | |
2012 | Good Deeds | Lindsey Wakefield | |
2013 | Half of a Yellow Sun | Olanna | |
2018 | Gringo | Bonnie Soyinka | |
2018 | Solo: A Star Wars Story | Val | |
2018 | The Death and Life of John F. Donovan | Audrey Newhouse | |
2021 | Reminiscence | Post-production |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | Pirate Prince | Becky Newton | Television film |
1997 | In Your Dreams | Clare | Television film |
2003–2009 | ER | Makemba "Kem" Likasu | Recurring role |
2006 | American Dad! | Makeva | Episode: "Camp Refoogee" |
2013–2015 | Rogue | Grace Travis | Main role |
2015 | The Slap | Aisha | Main role |
2016–present | Westworld | Maeve Millay | Main role Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2016, 2018) Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2018) Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2016, 2018) Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (2017) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (2016) Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2016) Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television (2016) |
2017 | Line of Duty | DCI Roseanne "Roz" Huntley | Lead role Nominated—British Academy Television Award for Best Actress |
2019 | Big Mouth | Mona the Hormone Monstress | Recurring role; 2 episodes |
2020 | RuPaul's Drag Race season 12 | Self | Episode 2: Guest judge |
References
- "New Year Honours List 2019". The London Gazette. 29 December 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- Stern, Marlow (11 October 2018). "Thandie Newton On The Tragedy Of Trump..." The Daily Beast. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
- O'Toole, Lesley (12 January 2007). "Thandie Newton's Discovery Of Gaiety". The Independent. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
- Barton, Laura; "'I was so incredibly self-conscious'" Guardian.co.uk, 28 May 2008
- Lewis, Sian; "Thandie Newton: 'Condi was my hardest role ever'" Independent.co.uk, 31 October 2008
- "Thandie Newton Biography" Yahoo! Movies
- Williams, Kam; "Sweet as Thandie" KamWilliams.com, 24 March 2008
- A Taste of My Life, Series 4 (BBC Two, 4 June 2008) Thandie Newton – Quote: "Nigel Slater (host): You were born in London but you didn't stay here for long did you? You went down to Cornwall? Thandie Newton (answers): Actually I don't know how my mum and dad managed to do this. But we lived in Zambia, and my mum was pregnant with me. And I was born on a two-week trip back to London, and then we went back to Zambia and my brother was born there. And we ended up coming to England finally when I was three years old. So my dad could help out with the family antique business."
- "Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself". Ted.com. July 2011. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
- "News and Events: Downing alumna Thandie Newton wins BAFTA award" Archived 22 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine Dow.Cam.ac.uk
- Thandie's Mission, Evening Standard, she also starred in the Guy Ritchie film Rock n' Rolla as a michivious accountant. 22 July 2005. Quote: "...but turned down the Lucy Liu role in Charlie's Angels in favour of making It Was An Accident, a minor film by her scriptwriter husband Ol Parker."
- "Doctor Who poised for radio panto" News.BBC.co.uk, 15 December 2006
- Needham, Alex; "Live Earth: The live blog, part 2" Guardian.co.uk, 7 July 2007
- Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself, TED, 15 July 2011'
- "Rogue to Debut on AUDIENCE Network in April". directv.com. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
- Eggenberger, Nicole (5 March 2014). "Thandie Newton welcomes baby boy Booker Jombe Parker in home birth". Us Weekly. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
- "Thandie Newton named PETA's sexiest vegan". Toronto Sun. 23 December 2014.
- "We Wish – Hopes and dreams of Cornwall's children". WeWish.org.uk. 30 November 2006. Archived from the original on 6 December 2006.
- McLean, Craig (7 January 2007). "Telling it like it is". The Scotsman. Archived from the original on 12 October 2007.
- "Thandie Newton humbled by Mali trip". Contact Music. 4 February 2009.
- "Thandie Newton joins women's protest". CNN. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
- "Actress Newton admits to pranks". BBC News Online. 4 September 2007.
- "Buddha Buzz: Mindfulness and Being a Buddhist Woman". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- "A Body in Motion: The For Colored Girls Interview with Kam Williams". Pittsburgh Urban Media. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- "Thandie Newton On Why She's Drawn to Tough Roles". W magazine. 5 July 2016. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- Nededog, Jethro (2 October 2016). "Westworld star Thandie Newton defends her decision to play a brothel madam". Business Insider. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
- Oppenheim, Maya (25 April 2018). "Thandie Newton explains why she thinks the Time's Up movement didn't want her involved". The Independent. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
- "Best Dressed 2018". Net a.
- Hicks, Amber (23 October 2018). "List of 100 most influential black people includes Meghan Markle for first time". mirror. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
External links
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