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Thandie Newton: Roles
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Thandie Newton's resume is as diverse as her pedigree. Having started off her showbiz career as a dancer, she abandoned the forbidden art to play character roles in a wide variety of films, cashing in on her instant likeability, her charm, and her great looks. Then came Tom Cruise, and her life changed forever. As the female lead in Mission: Impossible 2, she became a household face, if not name, in 2000's most watched movie.
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Newton has been married since 1998 to Oliver Parker, a British screenwriter she met when working on a British television film. "I was completely and immediately besotted," Newton was quoted by Jewel as telling OK Magazine about her meeting with Parker. Newton turned down a role in a big budget screen version of the popular 1970s series Charlie's Angels in order to appear in It Was an Accident, a modest budget film written by Parker and set for release in late 2000. Newton and Parker, who live in West London, are expecting their first child at about the same time. Newton is looking forward to motherhood. She told Swartley, "I think when you are called to protect something, a child, instinctively you feel more powerful."
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Despite two showy roles in dramatically different vehicles... Newton remained criminally underutilized in films. It wasn't until 2002 that Newton landed another major leading role, playing opposite of Mark Walhberg in the romantic thriller "The Truth About Charlie,†a remake of the 1963 Cary Grant-Audrey Hepburn film "Charade." Jonathan Demme, Newton's "Beloved" director, cast her in the Hepburn role as the widow of a man revealed to be a spy who gets caught up in a romantic espionage scheme. After a turn in the well-regarded indie film "Shade" (2004) as a slinky, seductive card sharp con artist playing both ends of the deck, Newton resurfaced in the sci fi/action sequel "The Chronicles of Riddick" (2004) as the sultry scheming Dame Vaako on the hunt for the fugitive Riddick (Vin Diesel).
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Thandie believes that her career has been influenced by her colour. For example, she has played a slave girl three times (Beloved, Jefferson in Paris, and Interview with the Vampire). When questioned about the repeated requests to assume such roles, she is quick to point to her ability to appreciate the nuances in playing these complex roles as well as to her ability to take on the personal challenge that's involved. 'Get over it. Just look at the films, they're completely different,' she tells herself and others.
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