Ruth Negga should be a bigger deal. She should be a bigger deal in general, in Hollywood and specifically, she should be a bigger deal this year. She was nominated for an Oscar for Loving, and for my money, she gave one of the best performances of the year (much better than Emma Stone in La La Land, frankly). But I think Hollywood doesn’t exactly know what to do with Ruth. It’s fine – she’ll find some way to succeed, I’m sure. Still, I have to admit that after reading Ruth’s cover interview with Town & Country, I sort of get why she’s not getting more attention – she comes across as someone very self-contained, someone is not going to “perform” as a celebrity just to get attention. You can read the full T&C piece here. Some highlights:
On growing up in Ireland: “In Ireland there weren’t very many black people. I was sort of exotic.”
On the tragic loss of her father at age 7 and dealing with death: “It’s not a taboo subject. My mom talks about my dad a lot. It’s awful to not know someone who you look like. It’s tragic, but that’s life, isn’t it? … You don’t have any concept when you’re a kid. This earthquake has happened, and you don’t know how to process it, and a lot of people it, and a lot of people around you don’t know how to process it.”
On her lifelong dream of being an actress: “I didn’t act as a child, I just knew I wanted to do it… I just watched movies. I don’t know how to explain it.”
On her childhood and transition from academics to acting: “I wasn’t fond of school. But I wasn’t disruptive. I knew that I could use it to get somewhere. To get out so I would never have to go back. I got into the academic course at Trinity [College in Dublin], and I was going to do it.” Then a relative mentioned that she could apply for a scholarship to study acting at Trinity’s Samuel Beckett Theatre, and she did that instead. “I loved being at Trinity, but it was hard work. Nine to six every day. And you’re on a university campus, and all your friends have half an hour of lectures a week, which they barely attend.”
On why she chooses ethically sourced fashion: Irene Neuwirth made the ring, headpiece, and earrings Negga wore to the Oscars. “They’re ethically sourced. I never liked the idea that someone would lose a limb just to make you look pretty.”
Her future plans: “I think I should probably take a break. Maybe visit my house in London. Turn my refrigerator back on.”
That’s interesting that she never did school plays as a kid, she just knew from watching movies that she wanted to be an actress. And do non-theater students at Trinity really only have 30 minutes of lectures a week? That seems… untrue. Granted, I think theater students in college work hard – but so do students of other disciplines. As for being “exotic” – that’s her word for it. A lot of people think that the word “exotic” is a way to otherize people of color. I think she’s using that word to describe how “other” she felt as one of the few people of color in Ireland at the time.
Also: she pretty much confirms that she’s still with Dominic Cooper, in case anyone was wondering.
Photos courtesy of Victor Demarchelier for Town & Country.
She should be a bigger deal. For what it’s worth, I think all the actresses nominated for best actress gave a better performance than Emma, except maybe Meryl. Sorry not sorry Emma.
She’s so talented and gorgeous. HONK for Ruth!
Honk all day for Ruth!! I love her!
Ruth Negga is gorgeous and she seems to be humble. I really like that in a person unlike Scarlette Johansson who is just ridiculously cold in her interviews.
Also years for her and Dominic Cooper for being a couple. I hope they last.
She’s also awesome in Preacher.
She’s electric in Preacher. Emminently watchable, she has presence. She’s better thank Cooper truth be told.
She is simply beautiful.
There was no black people in my secondary (high) school in the west of Ireland. I think there was about 600 kids in my school. My old school now has about 20 non-white children out of about 1000 students. I’m not sure where she went to school, if it was Dublin I’m sure this number would be waaayyy higher.
I think she’s exaggerating about her friends having a half hour of lectures, I assume she’s talking about arts students who have very few compulsory lectures a week, maybe 8-10 hours of lectures and tutorials weekly compared to courses in other departments that could be 40+ hours.
I’m from Dublin and there were probably only about 5 non-white students out of about 700 in my secondary school. This was in the late 90’s/early 00’s.
She’s from Limerick if I recall correctly, so probably not a million miles away from your experience. I was the same, a few students throughout the whole school who were anything other than white Irish, and probably Catholic.
She’s definitely exaggerating on purpose about other students in Trinity, I think. I don’t think she really believes they only did half an hour.
I don’t know what it’s like in Ireland, but in my country, if you’re from a small town the chances are you won’t act as a child because there are rarely opportunities. We didin’t have school drama clubs or theathres or anything. One girl I know who studies acting only started in her mid 20s when she moved to the capital.
She is so elegant and beautiful! I understand her use of exotic and how it makes you feel “other.” I am mixed and grew up in a mostly white area. I cannot tell you the number of times starting from age 10 that I was called exotic. It makes me shudder thinking about it.
I understand why she used this word, but many people think people of color are “exotic”.
She should be a bigger deal, I’m a fan. She’s so beautiful and is amazing as Tulip on Preacher, she really brings the character to life for me. She does come across as contained.
I wish she was a bigger deal she is so good and absolutely beautiful. I got my stepdad hooked on Preacher because he saw her when I was watching it and fell in love.
“Loving” was so fantastic, she and Joel Edgerton gave two of the best performances of the year, hands down.
And she is beautiful, but in a way that makes her look as if she stepped out of a 1920s magazine: very elegant and non-bombshell.
She reminds me of Josephine Baker.
Yes, should be a bigger deal. She’s interesting in the interviews I’ve seen and has a great, graceful presence onscreen.
Love Ruth and am a big fan of Preacher.
But this has been bugging me for months: I read an interview with her last fall where she made a comment about when she and Dom started dating, and there’s a fair amount of overlap with when he was with Amanda Seyfried. Like a couple of years.
On the one hand, she and Dom are both fantastic actors and want to keep their private life private, so good for them and I respect them for that. On the other hand, I’m nosey and fascinated by this gossip and want to know more.
I don’t get why it’s made out to be such a big deal if there are few black or asian or colored people in European countries. I grew up in India and there were none, zero, europeans or africans. Same in Africa, I bet. Does Europe always have to feel guilty for lacking diversity, when its the most diverse continent there is?
But there is an area in India where there the residents have west African ancestry as they are descended from those who were enslaved and brought there. They recognize this and celebrate it. Also, there is diversity throughout Africa, even if the countries have Black majorities.
The issue with Europe lacking diversity is that people who are othered due to their racial identity are frequently discriminated against. It’s naive to suggest that there is no basis for people to be commenting on their experiences with this.
What do you mean Europe lacking in diversity? In the British Isles alone you have Irish, Welsh, Scots, English and Cornish people. That’s without talking about the differences between the British Isles, Western Europe, Northern Europe and Southern Europe. Just because you lump them all in together doesn’t mean that there isn’t diversity of people.
I grew up in West Africa and in my school the only non black people were me, my sibling and an Indian boy. How do you figure that Africa is more diverse than Europe?
This is a reply to DangerMaus:
I’m pretty sure you’re aware the previous poster is referring to racial diversity. Scots, Irish, Welsh, English, Cornish are all of the same race.
I also see no comment by the previous poster that Africa is more diverse. Your issues are your own.
i don’t think she was blaming Europe or wanted to make anyone feel guilty. she just stated her experience, which is 100% legit.
my cousin spent a year in India and that was also something he said. that he felt different, like he stuck out.
I mean how can you really blame Europe for lacking diversity? what are they supposed to do? force people to move there?
Anon: What color were the “colored people”.
If they were coming from South Africa and they were of mixed-race ancestry then they would be named correctly. Other than that it’s probably not the best phrasing.
She’s not making a big deal out of it, she’s saying that there aren’t that many black people in Ireland. Which there aren’t. And no one, anywhere in the entire world, is so ignorant they don’t know about Europe’s fairly brutal history w/r/t race. Being a part of a small racial demographic can have its downsides. That’s all her quote acknowledges.
The problem people are having with this quote is speaking volumes.
Her and Dominic Cooper?
What an immensely talented (and intensely sexy) couple.
For those who remember me from the dim and distant past, know I’ve been a fan of Ruth since “Breakfast on Pluto” (still one of my favourite films: Cillian Murphy as a sparky transgender lead character, Liam Neeson as a sexy priest, Bryan Ferry, Liam Cunningham, Stephen Rea and Brendan Gleeson as a disgruntled Womble…what more do you want?). I hadn’t realised her dad died so young, which is ironic given her role in that film.
As for the rest of it: before the mid-1990s, we were a very homogeneous population. The vast majority of black and Asians were doctors and nurses. My rural school was unusual in that we had a biracial family, (but tbh I think we had grown up left school before we twigged they were biracial – it wasn’t an issue.)
Outside of the primary school nativity play, school plays were unusual up to the 90s, but far more common in urban schools. Our school rarely did them; but youth clubs might. Quite a few people I was at school with actually are actors now, and I don’t think any of them were in school productions because casting was down to (clueless) teachers who tended to favour certain students over others (in our school it’s if your parents were considered “important” or not 🙄).
I also went to Trinity (I had actually applied for her course, back in the day, but did another). She is exaggerating, although Arts subjects do have comparatively few compulsory classes as we are focussed on independent research, which has served me well in my career.)