Monday 26 March 2018

Gugu Mbatha-Raw: on Oprah, race and Hollywood



Already one of Britain’s most promising actors, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is now joining the A-list and working with the likes of Oprah, Mindy Kaling and Reese Witherspoon
‘Producers and casting directors have had to interrogate their choices’: Gugu Mbatha-Raw wears top by Victoria Beckham (harrods.com)
 ‘Producers and casting directors have had to interrogate their choices’: Gugu Mbatha-Raw wears top by Victoria Beckham (harrods.com). Photograph: Alex Bramall for the Observer

Late last year, Gugu Mbatha-Raw received a phone call from her mother. A letter had arrived at the family home in Witney, Oxfordshire. It wasn’t in just any old envelope; this bore a seal, and the words “Her Majesty’s Service”. Mbatha-Raw giggled down the line from Los Angeles. “Mother!’ she said. “It’s the damehood!”
The truth’s not so far removed: when we meet for lunch in London in January, Mbatha-Raw is fresh from a trip to Buckingham Palace to collect an MBE. “It was incredible,” she says sounding wistful, slightly in awe. “A chamber orchestra performed, sun streamed through the windows. Afterwards there was champagne and photos. It felt like a very posh graduation.” Still, if you think she’s wide-eyed about it, you should see her parents: “I think they’re more impressed than they would be if I won an Oscar.”
Awards season and its role in celebrating, or at least promoting, issues of diversity and equality is everywhere when we speak. “As much as people may be critical of those zeitgeisty moments, they have changed awareness,” she says. “Producers and casting directors have had to interrogate their choices, and it’s the same with the women’s movement: people are now calling out who’s not in the room, who’s not represented.”
In many ways, she observes, we’re repurposing awards ceremonies now. As protests? “Yeah, and that’s a good thing. I think we should be using them as ways to have discussions, rather than just treating them as shiny ego boosts for the industry. Because at some point, you have to ask: ‘What are these pats on the back for?’”


‘Awards can’t just be shiny ego boosts for the industry’: Gugu wears a green dress by Bottega Veneta
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 ‘Awards can’t just be shiny ego boosts for the industry’: Gugu wears green dress by Bottega Veneta. Photograph: Alex Bramall for the Observer

I wonder if Mbatha-Raw has ever felt a pressure to be a spokesperson. There aren’t many bi-racial women flying a flag for Britain in Hollywood. Is there a duty to represent, alongside the work? She thinks for a moment. “Well, I think it’s got to be authentic to your personality,” she points out. “So I don’t think you have to be a mascot for a cause, no. Personally, I think quite carefully about the choices I make, in terms of the work, and there’s a power in that choice. You know, sometimes I think choices speak for themselves.”Mbatha-Raw has known Oprah for a while now. “We met when I was promoting [the 2013 film] Belle, and we’ve stayed in touch,” she says. “We email, and I see her from time to time.” So what does she think of Oprah as the next president? “Oh, she’s so influential and wise,” she says as if it’s blindingly obvious, “I think she’d be amazing. To take a moment like that [an awards acceptance speech] and really use it as your platform… to have that power and confidence. I find that so inspiring.”


‘Oprah is so influential and wise’: Gugu wears a white dress by Mother of Pearl and boots by Dries van Noten.
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 ‘Oprah is so influential and wise’: Gugu wears a white dress by Mother of Pearl and boots by Dries van Noten. Photograph: Alex Bramall for the Observer

Belle was the true story of a bi-racial aristocrat raised by a white family in Georgian Britain. Oprah offered her assistance in marketing it in the US. “The next thing we knew she’d invited the cast to lunch in her garden in Santa Barbara, and when we got there, she’d invited a film crew. So she basically made a moment for the film in America.”
Mbatha-Raw had grown up watching Colin Firth’s Pride and Prejudice on TV with her mum in an era of Jane Austen adaptations, “but brown people don’t figure in those stories or they’re usually brutalised, subservient,” she says. “You’re basically a servant.”
Belle was different, giving a voice to a tale that rarely figures in the history books. “It had this very pioneering spirit,” she says. “In films, books, people generally go with what we know. The same stories get told. But this wasn’t from a novel.” She makes the point so elegantly, and with such passion. As the film’s director Amma Asante reveals: “Belle was a role Gugu chased down for eight years. A lot of actresses wanted that role, but she kept on it, all through development. So I think for her, there was definitely much more to the film than just giving a great performance.”
Mbatha-Raw has already worked with three major black female directors: Asante (who made 2017’s A United Kingdom); Love and Basketball auteur Gina Prince-Bythewood, whom Mbatha-Raw worked with on critically acclaimed hip-hop drama Beyond the Lights (“The moment she auditioned, she was creating the film before my eyes,” Prince-Bythewood remembers), and now Ava DuVernay.
But her life still has its share of “starry moments”, which is how she describes appearing on the 2016 Hollywood cover of Vanity Fair alongside Helen Mirren and Jennifer Lawrence. This month she stars on the cover of British Vogue. It’s also part of the job to attend the red carpet events and glitzy premieres. Talking of which, doesn’t rumour have it that Prince played at a certain after-party?


‘It was crazy. Prince was there and we became good friends’: Gugu wears yellow dress by Self-Portrait
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 ‘It was crazy. Prince was there and we became good friends’: Gugu wears yellow dress by Self-Portrait. Photograph: Alex Bramall for the Observer

“Ah,” she says, looking part surprised, part embarrassed. “Yes, that was for Belle. But I’d actually known him for a few years before.” How so? “He was accepting a lifetime achievement award at a ceremony that I attended, and he invited me and a friend to one of his house parties.” She chuckles: “I know, it’s crazy.” Then she waves a hand, eyes suddenly looking glassy. “Sorry,” she says. “He became a really good friend.” To this day, she still has the T-shirt he made her for Belle’s premiere. “He was really supportive of emerging artists, so he came and DJ’d – he said he wanted to create an ‘energy vortex’,” she laughs. “He was wearing a T-shirt with Belle printed on the front. And then he gave one to me.” She waves the hand again. “When he died, it was a shock. I found out about it on my birthday.”
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Born in 1983, Mbatha-Raw would have been just a year old when Prince picked up his Academy Award for Purple Rain. At this peak in his career, her mother, a white British nurse, and father, a black South African doctor, would more likely have been fans. Actually, Mbatha-Raw says, she was raised mainly on jazz; her parents separated when she was one and she recalls listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone in the car as a little girl, on the way to ballet with her mum. As an only child, every weekday evening was filled with after-school clubs. “My mum was an only child, too, so we didn’t have a big family. I was one of those kids who was signed up to everything.” By the time she was eight, she’d already requested to attend the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London – a decision that was probably inspired by Billie Piper. “She went there and she was a huge pop star. But there was also this show on TV called The Biz. It was Paul Nicholls in his really cute teenage days, and it was about a stage school. I absolutely loved it.”
Looking back, it was probably a good thing that her mum couldn’t afford Sylvia Young’s, she says. “When I got to Rada at 18, I’d had a normal upbringing – I wasn’t one of those actors who had already been worn down for 10 years when they started working.” She also thinks her mixed heritage has given her a useful perspective: “When one of your parents is from somewhere else, I think you look beyond your hometown. My name is rooted to a different culture [her full name is Guguletu, which means “our pride” in Zulu], and when you’re tethered to another place you look outwardly at the world.” For the first few days of her life, she was actually called Sophie. “Then my dad changed his mind,” she laughs. “Now I have a name that everyone asks me how to pronounce five times and can never spell. But do you know what? You apologise for it or you own it. So, I choose to own it.” In Hollywood it works, she says; you never get confused with anybody else.


‘In Hollywood my name works. It never gets confused with anybody else’: Gugu wears a white dress by Mother of Pearl.
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 ‘In Hollywood my name works. It never gets confused with anybody else’: Gugu wears a white dress by Mother of Pearl. Photograph: Alex Bramall for the Observer

She has been living there for years now, although she admits she can only manage around six weeks at a time before getting itchy feet. Recently she started work on the drama Motherless Brooklyn (with Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin), making it the second time in six months that she’s filmed in New York. You get the impression that might suit her better. But she’s constantly moving, the list of upcoming projects growing. Later in the year she’ll work with Gina Prince-Bythewood again, on an adaptation of Roxane Gay’s novel, An Untamed State.
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The project she talks about most is Farming, a low-budget British independent based on Nigerian-British writer Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s experience of being fostered by a white working-class family in Essex, not due for release until later this year. Set in the 1980s, it examines the effect of thousands of Nigerian children being farmed out to private carers in the UK, many of them never registered with social services or reunited with their parents.
For Mbatha-Raw, it’s an important story to tell. “I guess it’s another chapter in British history that hasn’t really been revealed,” she says. It’s these kind of nameless stories that are becoming key to her work: “At the beginning of your career, I think it’s about having the luxury of being able to work. Then, maybe the why becomes more important. The more you do, the more you question why. You start to ask if you should be contributing something, rather than just entertaining.” She smiles, warm and amiable, but I can’t help noticing there’s ferocity there. “Now, when I’m thinking about investing my time in a project, there’s always that question: ‘How will this be worth it?’”
A Wrinkle in Time is out on 23 March
Set design by Alun Davies; hair by Earl Simms at Caren using Hair by Sam McKnight; make-up by Camilla Hewitt at Frank Agency using MAC Cosmetics; photographer’s assistants Michael Furlonger and John Munro; fashion assistant Bemi Shaw; set assistant Kaushal Odedra

Monday 19 March 2018

Why Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a woman to watch in 2018

2018 is on track to be Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s career-defining year – Stylist meets the actor with plenty to shout about.
As the entertainment director of Stylist, it’s easy for me to say someone is an important name to know. Someone you should commit to memory and follow their career path because what they are doing is versatile, skilled and barrier-breaking. It’s not often the Queen agrees with me (to my chagrin). But this time the Queen does agree with me, recently awarding Gugu Mbatha-Raw – that aforementioned name to know – with an MBE for services to the arts, an honour she received a few weeks ago at Buckingham Palace: the royal seal of approval in its purest form.
Mbatha-Raw, 34, is an actor who has been working hard for years, gradually increasing her profile, proving and improving her talents. It’s interesting that 2018, a momentous year for women, is the year that she will be catapulted into the big time with her ability to command whichever screen she is on. I suspect it’s also of note that she’s an actor who has largely worked with female directors on her biggest roles (except 2016’s sublime Black Mirror series three episode San Junipero), including her breakout role in 2014’s Belle, directed by Amma Asante, and Beyond The Lights by Gina Prince-Bythewood the same year, which both centre on women who want – need – their voices to be heard in very different confines.Currently, Mbatha-Raw can be seen all over Netflix in the recently released science-fiction film The Cloverfield Paradox and Irreplaceable You, a love story about a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer. It pains me to say that while neither film quite manages to live up to its promise, she is nonetheless magnetic in both, providing empathy and poise and making each worth watching. More importantly there’s this month’s Disney fantasy adventure, A Wrinkle In Time, based on the eponymous 1962 novel by Madeleine L’Engle, that puts her into a whole new stratosphere alongside Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling. Culturally, the film is incredibly important: it’s directed by Ava DuVernay, the first African American woman to helm a $100 million (£72 million) film, and has at its centre a young woman of colour, played by 12 Years A Slave’s Storm Reid, who travels on a mission through space and time to find her father (Mbatha-Raw plays her scientist mother). The likes of BeyoncĂ© were at the film’s February premiere in Los Angeles.
Dress, £1,115, Sportmax
Coming up there are films that will cement her standing as she appears front and centre alongside Hollywood’s biggest stars in significant projects. In Motherless Brooklyn, due in 2019, she stars alongside heavyweights Edward Norton and Bruce Willis in the story of a lonely private detective in the Fifties. She’s also, excitingly, attached to the film adaptation of Roxane Gay’s debut novel Untamed State, in which she’ll again be directed by Prince-Bythewood.
With so many projects on the go, the actor now lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Witney, Oxfordshire with her English mother after she separated from her South African husband when Mbatha-Raw was a year old. At Stylist’s photoshoot, she is properly fun: loving the idea of graffiti-ing and getting the artist on set to show her how to do it properly. “Growing up in a not-remotely-urban environment, there wasn’t much opportunity for graffiti in Witney,” she laughs. Later at our interview, which takes place the day after meeting Prince Charles to receive her MBE, she’s equally buoyant, displaying a childlike excitement about the button you can press to get a waiter to bring you coffee in the Covent Garden Hotel. Drink ordered, we start talking about all the things that are on her mind right now…

On having Oprah in her corner 

“Oprah Winfrey was a champion of Belle and is an incredible thinker and leader. We didn’t have any scenes together in Wrinkle, unfortunately, but she did come and have a chat in my trailer one day; it was lovely to see her, she’s so wonderful and very, very grounded. She’s a brilliant orator and has a centre that is authentic, and that is why it touches people – you feel like it’s coming from the right place. Her spiritual centre is also something that inspires me. When Belle came out, she was very helpful in terms of being able to appreciate things. She was the first person to introduce me to the concept of a gratitude diary, and – without sounding super saccharine – it is a good way to keep perspective and not become too bratty. I write mine when I get on a plane. I take a moment before taking off to think, ‘OK, here we are and where am I going and where have I come from.’”
Dress, £160, Stine Goya; shoes, £625, Rupert Sanderson

On thinking for herself

“I’ve never really been a follower. Perhaps being an only child or having parents from two very different cultures, you’re forced to see things from different perspectives and understand that there are many ways to view the world. I think that helps you think for yourself. It’s something you have to nurture as well; your choices are what you have in this job. Gina Prince-Bythewood, who directed Beyond The Lights, always used to say that when you’re making a film, the reason you’re doing it has to be bigger than you. You start off acting or doing plays at school because you love it, then you get the luxury of choice and then you think, ‘OK, what is the reason, why am I doing this?’
When choosing roles, I’m often thinking about how it’s going to help culture evolve. We’re all here to contribute in that little marathon. It is a responsibility if you’re asking people to pay money to look at your face for two hours on a screen – so you better have something interesting to say.”

On receiving an MBE

“I don’t know who nominated me for it or how I got it; maybe someone will let me know in the future! I’d never been to Buckingham Palace before. My parents came with me and were so excited – my mum was being a typical mum and didn’t want us to be late, and then our taxi driver dropped us in the wrong place. My dad had to limbo under some barriers on the way in. We were scrambling in like complete imposters, but it was amazing and there was so much energy. You’re separated from your guests, which I didn’t realise would happen, and taken to a room with all the other people being awarded, which for me included Pamela Butcher, the 88-year-old table-tennis world champion. When you go up to receive the MBE itself there’s this etiquette where you have to curtsey to Prince Charles, who was doing our ceremony, and address him as ‘Your Royal Highness’ first and ‘Sir’ thereafter. It’s a huge honour and wonderful surprise, but it won’t change how I live my life on a day-to-day basis.”
Coat, £4,930, Calvin Klein
“I’ve always been interested in art and how it represents our culture. I love taking life-drawing classes, but I don’t get to do as much of it as I’d like because I’m quite all or nothing. I was crazily into the Pre-Raphaelites when I was about 17 and loved the painting of Ophelia at Tate Britain – I would go and just stare at it. Then when I was doing my art A-level, it was when all the Young British Artists such as Jenny Saville – who had that very fleshy painting style, which I liked – were huge.
It was actually, at a certain stage in my life, a toss-up between pursuing fine art or acting. I spent the whole of my A-levels in the art block; I loved it, but it was very intense. As much as I loved painting and drawing, it made me very introspective. The thing I loved about theatre was that it made me engage with other people.
Growing up as an only child and then getting into theatre brought me out of myself. I still love going to galleries – I’ve been to The Broad, which is the newest one in LA, and I also love the LACMA. I was just in New York at the Met this weekend, which is amazing because it’s immense. But in America it’s so expensive [to visit art galleries]. “Being able to just wander into a gallery in London was hugely inspiring, and I think it should be [free] for everybody.”

On finding spiritual space

“I’d definitely describe myself as spiritual. I’ve done yoga for about 12 years and I find it physically engages me. I was first introduced to meditation a few years ago through an online series with Oprah and Deepak Chopra [through the Chopra Meditation Center]. To be able to know what the tools are and have access to them to ground yourself is so important. This week I was doing a camera test in New York, then on Monday I went to Buckingham Palace, I’m flying to LA this afternoon… if I didn’t have stability, I’d go crazy. It’s important to know there’s something just for you and [a way to] get back to neutral that’s not about achieving anything. The word ‘yoga’ means ‘union’ in Sanskrit; the idea of union within yourself when you’re always playing different characters, and turning up different elements of your personality, is hugely important, especially for longevity.
This can be a bruising business, and a lot of people either give up or have a meltdown. For me it’s essential to have these tools.”
Coat, £4,930, Calvin Klein

On her cultural leanings

“I love tragedy – it’s one of my favourite genres, the dark, deep places – but I think you’ve also got to know at the end of it all why you went through it and feel that there is some potential for hope. I don’t like everything to be shiny and perfect with a happy ending; if you’re going to go on a journey with somebody, you want to at least feel.
I really loved Roxane Gay’s books Bad Feminist and Hunger – I found the latter an incredibly difficult but inspiring book. It was challenging and emotional and raw and honest. I read a lot of spiritual books; I’m totally not afraid of the self-help section. I’ve read all of BrenĂ© Brown’s books [The Gifts Of ImperfectionDaring GreatlyRising Strong, and Braving The Wilderness] – I love her, going back to when I saw her 2012 Ted Talk a couple of years ago. If you’re dealing a lot with things that are to do with emotions and storytelling, then unpicking things in a more analytical way is using a different part of my brain. It’s good to exercise it.”

On her daily ritual

“I have one cup of coffee a day, so I like it to be a good one – a white Americano. I got an espresso machine as a gift and thought, ‘I’m never going to use it – I like having coffee out’, but actually it’s brilliant. Although one thing I can’t do is frothing the milk. There’s a place in LA I sometimes go to called Intelligentsia – one of those ‘coffee snob’ places. I was talking to a guy who was training there and he was like, ‘Oh no, I’m not on to milk yet. Coffee is one thing, but milk – you have to be here for a few months before you get to know that.’ I was like, ‘Are you serious?’”

On keeping intersectionality front and centre

“[With A Wrinkle In Time] Ava [DuVernay] is the first woman of colour to be given a budget of more than a hundred million dollars to direct a film. I was so inspired to work with her. I think that is worth talking about, because it’s a first. While we’re still having these first moments, it’s a good reference point as to where we really are as opposed to where we think we are. Where is the representation? Constantly questioning that is so important. Thinking about who is not in the room is something that came up in the first Time’s Up meeting I went to in LA. It’s so crucial to ask, ‘What have we missed in this picture on every level?’ From who’s written the script and who’s directing, to who is in front of the camera. It’s up to all of us on every level?’ From who’s written the script and who’s directing, to who is in front of the camera. It’s up to all of us.
A Wrinkle in Time is in cinemas from 23 March.