IRISH ACTRESS RUTH Negga’s latest film role has been announced and it looks set to be a huge part for her.
‘Passing’ is based on the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance novel of the same name, written in 1929 by Nella Larsen. The title of ‘Passing’ refers to the practice of ‘racial passing‘, whereby a person of one ‘race’ can ‘pass’ for, or seeks to ‘pass’ for another race, in order to be accepted.
The story follows the reunion of two childhood friends from the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City. In the movie, Ruth will play Clare Kendry, who ‘passes’ as Caucasian, and who has kept her ‘racial’ identity a secret from everyone, including her husband and family. Clare reconnects with her friend Irene Redfield as an adult, which leads to unforeseen consequences.
Tessa Thompson, who has starred in Westworld, Selma and Thor:Ragnarok, will portray Irene.
Rebecca Hall, who won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Vicky in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, will make her directorial debut with the movie and has also written the script.
Speaking about the story of ‘Passing’, the Cambridge educated Hall said:
Nella Larsen’s Passing is an astonishing book about two women struggling not just with what it meant to be black in America in 1929, but with gender conventions, the performance of femininity, the institution of marriage, the responsibilities of motherhood, and the ways in which all of those forces intersect.
Hall felt an affinity to the book as she read the novel when she was discovering about her own family history:
I came across the novel at a time when I was trying to reckon creatively with some of my personal family history, and the mystery surrounding my bi-racial grandfather on my American mother’s side. In part, making this film is an exploration of that history, to which I’ve never really had access.
Negga was nominated in 2016 for her role in Loving.
If the movie lives up to expectation, we smell another nomination coming her way… not that we’re getting ahead of ourselves or anything!
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