Thandiwe Newton names her greatest role: “Of everything I’ve done”
When Toni Morrison’s Beloved was published in 1987, it quickly earned the author a place among the literary greats and became one of the most notable books of the time.
Following the lives of a dysfunctional Black family descended from slaves in Cincinnati whose home is haunted by a baleful spirit in the form of Beloved, the book went on to become a huge success, even garnering a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
It was one of the first novels to bring the experience of slavery to a mainstream audience, exploring a myriad of themes like the trauma of enslavement, mother-daughter relationships, manhood and spirituality.
Ten years later, director Jonathon Demme, who would also go on to make another book-to-screen adaption with The Silence of the Lambs starring Jodie Foster, adapted Morrison’s book to the screen as a gothic psychological horror drama starring Thandiwe Newton as the mysterious Beloved.
While the film wasn’t a commercial success, making nowhere near as predicted, Beloved has been praised for its true-to-form rendition of Toni Morrison’s classic, particularly in its handling of the formerly enslaved protagonist Sethe, whose traumatic, complex and disparate memories of her past were visually recreated onscreen.
The film’s rich motifs and refusal to shy away from some of the novel’s more difficult portrayals of the psychological effects of enslavement won acclaim for honouring a defining work on the trauma of enslavement in post-Civil War America and not making it palatable for easy consumption.
It was this honouring of Morrison’s legacy that made Beloved Thandiwe Newton’s proudest work, who revealed that the novel was one of her favourites ever, so there was evidently an expectation for the team, and especially her, to live up to this title. The cast and crew evidently succeeded, as the British-Zimbabwean actor also noted Beloved as her favourite film out of everything she has ever done.
The actor shared her love for the novel with co-star Oprah Winfrey, who plays Sethe in the film and was also an executive producer through her company Harpo Films. Both Jonathon Demme and Oprah’s admiration for Toni Morrison shone through in the film’s honouring of the essence and intent of the author’s novel.
“Let me tell you, [Demme] made me feel like I had to really earn the right to be in this movie,” the actor told The Telegraph about auditioning for the role. He made Thandiwe wait two weeks before he told her she had got the part, while he knew all along it was hers.
“He’s very controlling,” Newton reflected, “But then again, I’ve been on movies where the director isn’t in control, and it’s terrifying. There’s got to be someone at the tiller. Movies made by committee are shit.”
The feature also thrust Newton onto the world stage, despite being a commercial flop, and taught her one of the most important lessons of her career: Don’t think about awards while you’re working. The actor would go on to star in films like the post 9/11 trauma drama Crash, mystery horror Vanishing on 7th Street and Nigerian Civil War romance drama Half of a Yellow Sun.
Thandiwe Newton reverted her name from Thandie in 2021 to honour her Zimbabwean roots, with her original name meaning “beloved” in Zulu, a connection so deep, you could not manufacture it even if you tried.
