Thandie Newton has a new interview with Refinery29 to promote her partnership with skincare brand RoC. I’ve never used their products but they’re available at just about every major retail outlet. Thinking about Thandie has me yearning for the second season of Westworld, which has been put on a production hiatus due to the terrible wildfires in California. We still don’t have a definitive release date, but Evan Rachel Wood tweeted last month that it will return in the Spring of 2018, so fingers crossed. I would suspect that they’ll need to push that back a bit due to the delay, but we’ll see.
Getting back to Thandie, she speaks so candidly that it’s a joy to read this brief interview. She talks about the backhanded compliment “you look good for your age,” which is RoC’s tagline as they’re trying to start a conversation “about the pressures and stresses of being a woman.” We’ve seen mixed results when brands try to co-opt social causes, but they sometimes get it right. With Thandie as the voice of this campaign, RoC is off to a good start. She also talks in general terms about Predatorgate 2017 and speaking truth to power.
She hates it when people say ‘You look good for your age’
“For women over 30, there’s the addition of children and the stress of holding down a job, and most people don’t have help. They grit the teeth with their mother-in-law, support their husband, and deal with misogyny. That’s a lot of stuff. It’s not, ‘You look good for your age.’ It’s, ‘You look good for a renaissance woman holding down all those things and still managing to have a glow about you.'”On representing RoC
“Rather than just using [this campaign] to hawk another product, they want to take this opportunity for a conversation. It’s not about the age, it’s about the pressures and stresses of being a woman. Once we realize our stressors, we’re going to seek to change those things and force society to recognize that being a mother is one of the most challenging jobs in the world. If it was paid, we’d be respected more. We should take a step back and see why people are amazed that an older woman looks good. It’s because they know how much we do. It’s not ‘for your age.’ It’s for being a frickin’ goddess despite all of that.”On her Westworld character and discovering truth
“What I love about Westworld and that character is all the things that we normally associate with giving us better strength — the outfit, the attitude, the freedom of speech — they’re all denied for this character. She’s completely vulnerable and stripped of her dignity.“To see her discovering the truth and getting underneath the lies is a metaphor for where we are right now. Getting under the lies, claiming the truth for ourselves and not waiting to be given it. That’s a lot of what goes on when you’re used to being in a system, a hierarchy, and you trust those at the top. Suddenly when we’re aware of all those lies, we search for the truth in other ways — and that’s what’s happening now. Suddenly, there will be an explosion of women with their experiences, and ‘looking good for your age’ will be done and gone. It’s exciting.”
There’s more in the interview about embracing her natural hair, about the soothing ritual of getting her hair done and about bonding with her daughters as she does their hair. She has daughters Ripley, 17, and Nico, 13, along with a three year-old son, Booker. (Here’s a sweet photo she posted in 2016 where she’s nursing Booker, it made me miss that time.) I agree with her about being a mother being challenging, partly because the stakes are so high. If you screw up at work it’s one thing but if you screw up with your kids you’re potentially affecting their lives and future relationships. I try to just do the best I can and not think too hard about that.
Incidentally, Thandie spoke out in 2016 about a director who sexually harassed her, she didn’t name him at the time but she told W Magazine that “A director, on a callback, had a camera shooting up my skirt and asked me to touch my tits and think about the guy making love to me in the scene. I thought, ‘Ok, this is a little weird,’ but there was a female casting director in the room and I’d done weird stuff before so I did it.” She later found out that the director was showing the video at his home after poker games. Claire Forliani revealed that she also had a “disgusting experience” with that unnamed director, who wasn’t Weinstein as Claire discussed Weinstein’s abuse in that same interview. Claire credited Thandie for speaking out before this current zeitgeist of exposing predators. She said she was “in awe” of Thandie’s “bravery and balls” and called Thandie “a female crusader” and “modern suffragette.” RoC was smart to pick Thandie for this campaign and hopefully they’ll let her spearhead the conversation.
photos credit: Backgrid, WENN and Instagram/Thandie Newton
Omgggg that Rosa Parks shirt is amazing. I need it.
Isn’t is awesome?
I gotta say, I do tire of celebrities telling us from on high that motherhood is the toughest job in the world. Most moms, presumably, have that figured out.
That shirt is amazing!
They sell them on Amazon.
I think her last statement is far more inspiring as a headline. It also speaks to the host of her interview. I like her.
Damn 45 looks good on her. My friend often gets told she looks like Thandie Newton and she’s Asian. But, she does.
I actually think Thandie and Gwyneth Paltrow sort of look alike – something about their jawlines.
Motherhood is not a job, it’s a responsibility. Who invented this being a mother is a job? Parenthood pre-dates “job” by how long?
I know. I am getting really tired of all this. Where did this stuff come from? Mom-guilt, you go mama. Mom life is so hard. Don’t have kids then, the planet could use a break.
I feel like saying to her ‘thanks captain obvious’
Stunning woman. Ageless! Thank you Thandie!
Love her. Always a class act.
She’s gorgeous.
A beauty at every age.
Jfc
Do we really need to nitpick referring to motherhood as a job vs responsibility?
It’s tough, any parent who says it isn’t challenging is lying.
That said, she really is stunning.
I thought recovering from an amputated hand within 48 hours (as in Line of Duty)would be tougher to be honest. 🙂
Hmm googling blinds about who that director is…
She is very polarizing. I am so drawn to her. She is the only reason to watch MI-2 and my “fall-in-love” moment was her character in ‘Crash’ and how well she executed it.
I really like this pairing with RoC and letting them lead a different campaign. I am 40 and had my first child at 36 and subsequently the second at 38; On numerous occasions, the comment “you look good for your age and two kids”. It’s such a backhanded compliment.
In my opinion, “your kids are amazing, you are doing a great job and looking good while doing it” — nothing else added.