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Tessa Thompson opened up about her desire for Black women to be more diversely represented in film and the Oscar buzz surrounding her role in the 2021 Netflix film Passing in her latest interview with Harper’s Baazar.
As MADAMENOIRE reported before the film’s debut on the streaming service last October, Passing is a black and white film based on a 1929 novel by Nella Larson in which Thompson stars in the lead role as Irene Redfield.
The movie showcases the complex dynamics between race, identity, infidelity, domesticity and repressed sexuality as Redfield and Clare Kendry (played by actress Ruth Negga), two mixed-race women, reunite in 1920s Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance.
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“Lensing an experience like that, we’ve seen it time and time again in film iconography… and it’s always a white female protagonist,” Thompson told Harper’s Baazar in a recent interview. “For me, with the choices that I make in my career, I always ask: ‘Where do we not get to be as Black women?'”
“I hope Passing makes more room to be able to look at the interior life of a Black woman for her own sake,” Thompson noted, adding, “We have not so far been afforded that much space for nuance and ambiguity.”
Directed by Rebecca Hall, the actress played the film’s lead and served as one of Passing‘s producers.
Thompson explained being drawn to the script particularly because of its contemporary approach to identity, a nod to the novel the film is based on.
“The book had such modernity in the way it talked about identity, not just racial identity, but how free any of us are to be the people that we know ourselves to be,” she recalled. “I was just blown away by both Nella’s work and what Rebecca had done with it.”
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“I really wanted to be able to focus on narratives, and not just the ones that I am acting in,” Thompson expressed. “Because as much as I feel really lucky to add representation, and to be a part of that conversation, I’m also aware that I don’t represent all Black women, that there are all kinds of Black women that we don’t get to see on screen often enough.”
Despite “trying not to think about” the possibility of scoring her first Oscar win with her performance in the film, Thompson said she already feels victorious due to the ongoing dialogue stemming from Passing’s themes.
“The thing you’re supposed to say is, we don’t make these things for awards,” Thompson told the outlet with a laugh. “But I think that’s entirely true for Passing because Rebecca didn’t make any concessions in terms of the kind of film that she wanted to make. We made this film in 23 days, we made it for very little money, it’s black and white, it stars two women of color, and we’ve had the chance to be both in theatres and in people’s homes, and to see such a robust dialogue around it. We’ve already won!”
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