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Ruth Negga Speaks on New Netflix Film 'Passing' with Tessa Thompson | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
Nov 3, 2021
"Passing" follows the unexpected reunion of two high school friends, whose renewed acquaintance ignites a mutual obsession that threatens both of their carefully constructed realities.
#RuthNegga #TessaThompson #Passing #Netflix #SwaysUniverse #SwayInTheMorning #SiriusXM #Shade45
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Ruth Negga Speaks on New Netflix Film 'Passing' with Tessa Thompson | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/EgASwb5vK7A
Sway’s Universe
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0:00
yes indeed something's holding me back
0:05
is it because i'm black
0:09
when you look up uh passing
0:12
i'll read a definition that i found past
0:15
racial passing
0:16
occurs when a person classified as a
0:18
member of a racial group is accepted or
0:20
perceived
0:22
passes if you will as a member of
0:24
another
0:26
historically the term has been used
0:28
primarily in the united states to
0:30
describe a person of color
0:32
or of multiracial ancestry who
0:35
assimilated into the white majority to
0:37
escape the legal and social convictions
0:40
of racial segregation and discrimination
0:43
so you pretend to be something that
0:46
possibly give you an advantage in this
0:48
society of inequities
0:50
uh prejudice racism
0:53
so so on and so forth
0:55
a lot of our
0:56
ancestors a lot of our ancestors
1:00
passed in this society my great auntie
1:04
lucy murph beautiful woman when i say
1:06
your name please give a round of
1:08
applause lucy murph
1:10
um she's the woman who kind of took me
1:12
in as an infant
1:14
was extremely light like you wouldn't
1:16
even know you know that if you if you
1:18
didn't know you wouldn't know she she
1:20
was black you know and i remember
1:23
growing up in her household and just
1:25
watching the different how people
1:27
reacted to her differently
1:29
and i and and i don't know what they
1:31
thought of me you know as a young kid i
1:33
was taking in all this energy but people
1:35
reacted to her differently those who
1:37
didn't realize uh that she was black she
1:40
grew up in the south so i can only
1:42
imagine in some instances that worked to
1:45
her advantage absolutely right
1:48
yes
1:49
and uh and so we're talking about this
1:52
because of this next this netflix film
1:54
db break it down for us db break it down
1:56
for us because we got our guests on the
1:58
line
1:59
well first of all i'm super excited
2:01
because sway heather tracy and citizens
2:04
i am a huge fan of the marvel series
2:07
agents of shield and that's where i was
2:08
first introduced to her as rayna who was
2:10
exposed to the terrigen crystals and
2:12
unlocked her inhuman abilities that's a
2:14
whole nother thing that we'll get into
2:15
at another time but her human abilities
2:17
include starring on the amc series
2:19
preacher and in the films such as world
2:21
war z 12 years a slave loving in at
2:24
astra her theater credits include
2:25
playing in hamlet twice and she'll be
2:27
starring as lady macbeth in the
2:29
production of macbeth's alongside daniel
2:31
craig opening next year she's a golden
2:33
globe emmy and academy award nominated
2:36
actress but i feel like after her
2:37
performances riveting film that we're
2:38
talking about now she's going to be
2:40
collecting some trophies the film i'm
2:41
talking about is passing which is in
2:43
theaters now and it'll be available on
2:45
netflix on november 10th please welcome
2:47
ruth [ __ ]
2:51
wow
2:52
what an introduction thank you for that
2:55
what a journey thank you yeah
2:58
what what what does it feel like to hear
3:00
all those accolades
3:02
i feel pretty proud of myself now thanks
3:04
for bringing up my morning there you go
3:06
come on roof welcome to the show i'm
3:08
sway um
3:11
how you doing we got heather b and tracy
3:13
g
3:14
hey bro hi everyone hey hey good morning
3:18
love you with you absolutely absolutely
3:21
with all of the things that the litany
3:23
of accomplishments that db ran down the
3:26
line what
3:27
do you not work is there every point in
3:28
your life where you're not
3:31
i working
3:31
worked in the last year and a half i
3:33
have to say i've been i've become my
3:35
couch to be honest
3:38
so
3:39
no i am yeah i mean i got tired
3:42
listening to that actually
3:45
i need a holiday obviously
3:47
absolutely um where did you grow up ruth
3:50
i'm i'm i grew up um in ethiopia in
3:54
ireland and in england
3:57
okay okay so your parents moved around
3:59
where where were you mostly educated was
4:01
it in ethiopia ireland mostly educated
4:03
in england
4:05
and then that's why you studied the crap
4:08
no that i studied from the craft i don't
4:10
really say that um in dublin at trinity
4:14
college
4:15
in dublin
4:17
yeah
4:17
okay okay so
4:19
ladies and gentlemen if you happen to go
4:21
to dublin ireland
4:22
i mean if you go to the guinness
4:24
headquarters and uh
4:26
and and you look at it's a picture on
4:28
the wall you'll see me
4:30
in the manager of guinness on the walls
4:32
no way yeah yeah i'm there yeah ruth i'm
4:35
there i'm there
4:37
you you'll see me there uh well welcome
4:40
to the show it's great to have you on
4:42
the show um i was also a big fan of the
4:44
film loving i think you did an awesome
4:46
job in that what a great what was that
4:48
experience like for you you got a lot of
4:50
critical acclaim you know do you know
4:53
what that is the highlight of my life um
4:57
i can't tell you
4:59
how i feel about mildred and richard
5:01
loving i they're my heroes and
5:04
i don't really believe in heroes usually
5:07
but they certainly are mine
5:09
um it was an absolute privilege to um
5:13
you know bring their story to the screen
5:15
you know i really love what i love about
5:18
the opportunities i've had and you know
5:20
with loving and with this story now is
5:23
to bring sort of
5:24
um uncherished stories previously
5:28
uncherished stories to the screen
5:30
hopefully to a wider audience you know
5:33
who get to um meet these wonderful
5:35
artists and people um who haven't you
5:39
know been spotlighted and and i think
5:41
that's you know there's a lot of people
5:43
who are super excited about doing that
5:45
kind of work and you know i i get to be
5:47
one of them and that's
5:49
that's i can't tell you the joy that
5:51
brings me my life it's a great great
5:53
privilege
5:54
absolutely man i look man that sounds
5:57
loving your work is a great privilege
5:59
too
6:01
right
6:02
this film i'm so interested in i can't
6:05
wait to see it as an important film
6:07
uh it's gonna open up a lot of dialogue
6:10
we actually got callers uh we start
6:12
talking about this and callers are
6:13
calling to talk about their family
6:15
experience and their experiences with
6:16
passions
6:18
so we're going to take some live calls
6:20
but you mentioned ethiopia you mentioned
6:23
ireland you come from a multi-racial
6:25
background yourself yes uh so yeah yeah
6:28
and so that that makes it even more
6:30
interesting to me how you play this role
6:32
and what's been your personal experience
6:34
with racial identity
6:37
wow what a big question okay
6:39
well um
6:42
to be honest
6:43
it's kind of hard to answer that
6:45
question because
6:47
at the core and i know this i at the
6:49
risk of making this conversation sound
6:51
faster i'm just me
6:53
and so really
6:55
but you know
6:56
in in our world we sort of
6:59
have
7:00
different we're not made up just of how
7:03
we feel about ourselves you know where
7:07
our identity is
7:09
for good or bad affected by
7:11
the perception of ourselves by others
7:14
you know we're often sort of um
7:19
you know how we make up ourselves is
7:22
is is sort of inextricably linked to how
7:25
we're perceived by others you know
7:27
and i think for a lot of people i don't
7:29
know being a dual heritage sometimes
7:31
confuses others you know people
7:33
you know humans we love our boxes we
7:35
love our labels you know we like a
7:38
reliable pattern you know and for some
7:40
reason we think that makes us feel safe
7:42
but actually it's very limiting and the
7:44
kind of constraints
7:47
that um are put upon us by people's
7:49
assumptions about who we are
7:52
through this
7:54
you know um human-constructed idea of
7:57
race can be quite limiting you know and
7:59
i've had that in my experience you know
8:01
um
8:02
and i think really how we transcend that
8:05
is really in many ways
8:08
it sounds really complicated but we have
8:10
to transcend the boxes that we put
8:13
people in you know and we have to allow
8:15
people to define themselves for
8:17
themselves
8:19
you know because
8:21
you know and i always feel like when we
8:23
talk about racial definition i mean with
8:26
it for me
8:28
it's it's not a good history
8:30
always
8:31
you know it's
8:33
it's to be honest anything that
8:35
circumscribes your life based on these
8:37
kind of
8:38
nebulous by things like race i mean it's
8:40
sort of
8:42
it would be laughable if it wasn't so
8:44
deadly
8:45
um
8:46
you know throughout history um
8:49
the political has become the personal
8:52
with regards race because you know when
8:55
you're defining identity and
8:57
circumscribing people's lives and you're
8:59
legislating on it
9:01
the two are intertwined so for me um
9:06
i don't know i could talk about this for
9:08
ages yeah um it it just raised pervades
9:11
everything um
9:13
throughout our lives yet
9:15
we really don't talk about it
9:17
really enough and we feel like at the
9:20
moment it's everywhere but kind of what
9:22
are the substantive conversations we're
9:24
having and i really feel that this film
9:26
is kind of i don't know will generate
9:28
actual
9:29
um
9:31
conversations that we've never had
9:32
before regards passing um and and
9:36
colorism which is which is another to be
9:38
in in all communities really it's
9:40
something that we no one talks about and
9:42
i'm glad that sort of these
9:44
conversations are coming to the fore
9:45
because regards passing especially i
9:48
think you know many people
9:50
have never heard of us
9:52
and it's been going on for hundreds of
9:53
hundreds of hundreds of years in this in
9:55
this in this country
9:57
and it has affected people's
9:59
lives and families and people haven't
10:02
talked about it because the nature of it
10:05
is to be secretive it's to hide one's
10:08
identity as a black person in this um
10:13
um in this specific situation
10:16
i love how you broke that down
10:20
i like the words you chose um
10:23
which has triggered more phone lines so
10:25
i want to allow some folks to talk to
10:26
you directly janine is on the line from
10:28
phoenix grand rises
10:30
hey janine
10:32
hey y'all how are you doing hey good
10:35
doing well say hi to ruth
10:38
hi ruth i can't wait
10:40
i'm so excited i'm so excited
10:44
okay you had a comment to me
10:46
yeah so i wanted to tell you guys um
10:49
my grandmother mary luffy was actually a
10:52
black woman passing for white she was so
10:55
bare-skinned and you know right down to
10:57
like all of her features her lips her
11:00
hair was blonde she was serving in the
11:03
um all white
11:05
cafeteria and she was you know
11:08
certified a cafeteria worker a dietitian
11:10
and you know this was during the times
11:13
of segregation
11:15
um even though she had a black husband
11:18
people just automatically assumed you
11:20
know that you know maybe he worked for
11:23
her
11:24
there was a story that was told they
11:26
were on the street on main street
11:28
arguing about you know what was in the
11:30
grocery cart and he was helping her load
11:33
the groceries into
11:35
their truck
11:36
and a police officer actually
11:39
heard this black man quote unquote
11:41
disrespecting this white woman she goes
11:44
back into the store he gets hauled off
11:46
and taken to the jailhouse
11:48
and my grandmother comes outside and you
11:51
know sees the truck is there my
11:53
grandfather has disappeared it's a small
11:55
rural community in virginia um that
11:58
we're from
11:59
and somebody told her oh yeah uh there
12:02
was a black man that just got called off
12:03
to the jail so she had to go get her
12:05
husband which was my grandfather so
12:08
there were so many people that didn't
12:10
even realize that you know this was
12:13
actually a black woman born to black
12:15
parents uh you know just through the
12:18
lines of history genealogy and all of
12:20
that you know sometimes you have
12:22
children that come out that way or back
12:24
then you know we're beginning to think
12:26
that maybe her father could have been
12:27
white
12:28
so she was fair enough to pass for you
12:31
know like during the jim crow area era
12:33
you know the early 20s 30s 40s and 50s
12:36
until she died in the 70s people just
12:38
thought that she was a white woman
12:41
wow
12:42
wow isn't that fascinating
12:45
wow
12:46
how did she cope with that was she
12:49
did she use it as does she use it to her
12:51
advantage janine or did she not like
12:53
that people thought she was white
12:55
i think that that was the only way that
12:58
she can secure employment you know when
12:59
you think about
13:02
in the past women had to contribute to
13:05
households as well so some people did
13:07
laundry some people were cooks and you
13:11
know she had a big family i think there
13:12
were like 13 of my grandfather's um
13:16
siblings and they were all an array of
13:19
you know different you know
13:22
features you know some had uh gray eyes
13:25
some green eyes brown eyes um blonde
13:28
hair i think we had an albino
13:30
um
13:31
you know in our family you know during
13:33
that generation
13:35
and it was just so important for women
13:37
to be able to earn
13:39
in addition you know to their husband
13:41
because like they were making like
13:43
what like not even
13:45
a hundred dollars you know you know a
13:48
month so it was just really important
13:50
for everybody to contribute and i think
13:53
that she just found you know hey
13:55
as long as i can get work
13:57
we'll just we'll just what we gotta do
13:59
right what was her name
14:02
mary lucy wiley there you go we
14:05
celebrate her today thank you janine yes
14:07
thank you so much these are the kind of
14:10
stories this film passing is going to
14:12
bring out we're going to hear so many
14:14
differently
14:16
you know and i'm sure you're excited
14:17
about that and and even hearing this
14:20
story that she told we got a whole line
14:22
we got a whole list of callers d.b i
14:24
know you want to jump in
14:25
yeah if you don't mind uh ruth um at the
14:28
core of this film is a few different
14:30
subjects not only just the topic of race
14:32
i mean you have two women who are in
14:33
love at a time period where that was
14:35
such a taboo issue but the thing that i
14:38
wanted to ask you about was that because
14:40
the film is based around the idea of
14:42
passing but it's also shot in black and
14:45
white which is a conversation in and of
14:47
itself so how does the way the film is
14:50
shot in black and white play into that
14:53
conversation
14:55
that's fascinating what a great comment
14:57
what a great question um
14:59
well the thing is is that
15:02
rebecca paul was the director of this
15:04
stunning film
15:06
she
15:07
uh read this book she someone gave her
15:09
this book
15:10
because she was having conversations
15:14
with her mother about passing because
15:16
she found out that her grandfather had
15:19
actually passed for white
15:22
and it wasn't talked about in the family
15:24
and it was a sort of taboo subject that
15:26
was
15:27
paid occasional lip service but not
15:31
really talked about and so it was kind
15:32
of
15:33
um a haunting secret for her family
15:37
and she read this book and then she sat
15:40
down as soon as she read it she opened
15:41
her laptop and she sat down and she just
15:44
wrote and she had this vision of it in
15:46
black and white
15:47
and
15:48
and we talked about
15:50
this impulse and it really is kind of
15:52
poetical but really rooted in reality
15:55
that you know black and white uh black
15:58
and white film and actually black and
16:00
white film is actually it's not black
16:02
and white it's gray it's different
16:04
gradations of gray you know there is no
16:07
black and white
16:08
um
16:09
and and in the film
16:11
that along with sort of proximity to
16:13
bodies um sort of the blurring of the
16:17
edges of the frame all of this
16:19
contributes to a sense of what is real
16:22
and what is not what is tangible and
16:24
what is not because race isn't real it's
16:26
a construct
16:28
invented to
16:30
divide and also what is
16:33
you know if someone doesn't look black
16:35
are they black what is blackness is it
16:38
culture is it color how is it um part of
16:41
our identity how is it how do is it not
16:43
part of some people's identity how much
16:45
do they want to deny it you know all
16:47
these
16:48
um scenes the the the the the film is
16:52
presenting and sort of leaving us to
16:54
grapple with which is really the bravest
16:57
and the the clearest move
16:59
um to make really because
17:02
what i love about art is that
17:05
it's
17:06
provocative it disrupts it creates
17:09
it illuminates you know it brings light
17:11
to darkness and these are these are
17:12
issues and subjects matter and
17:15
that i think you know we need to talk
17:17
about and we shouldn't be ashamed to
17:18
talk about i mean you know um like your
17:21
previous caller what's so interesting
17:23
there is um and she was talking about
17:25
her grandmother mary
17:27
um reasons for passing you know people
17:30
people i haven't read
17:33
i've only read
17:34
the few stories i've read have been
17:36
about
17:37
passing for opportunity passing for
17:39
access you know um passing to get equal
17:43
pay passing to
17:45
go to medical school you know um really
17:49
it's about passing
17:52
to reach one's potential it's not about
17:54
discarding blackness
17:56
i haven't read one story about that you
17:59
know and so i think it's it's it's
18:01
important to understand the motivations
18:04
and impulses behind passing
18:06
and really people you know people you
18:08
know it's been described as a chosen
18:10
exile a self exile because really you
18:12
are um alienating yourself from your
18:14
family you you kind of have to sever
18:17
ties in many ways you don't have a
18:18
choice because if you are found out
18:20
there could be deadly consequences you
18:22
know we have to remember and i think
18:24
this is what rebecca's whole whole films
18:27
are so beautifully is is there is this
18:29
ever present
18:31
pervasive feeling of danger
18:34
what you know from the very beginning
18:36
you know irene i would say tessa
18:38
thompson's character played so abusively
18:41
the remarkable test thompson um you know
18:44
she's sort of an opportunistic passer if
18:47
you will you know it's hot she needs to
18:49
get out of the heat and that's how she
18:51
bumps into claire who has made
18:54
it her life's work to pass
18:57
um and i think you know it's
19:01
it's um
19:03
it's it's
19:04
it's really important that we
19:06
explore these sort of
19:08
forgotten um
19:10
lives
19:11
you know and i think in doing that we
19:13
can illuminate
19:15
present
19:16
lives and present families and their
19:18
histories and their secrets and you know
19:21
i suppose trying to get rid of the shame
19:23
associated with it
19:25
because there was great shame
19:27
and i really think it's misplaced shame
19:29
because this was i it was a very very
19:32
brave decision in my view
19:34
i mean maybe i'm biased because you know
19:36
i love my character i love claire
19:38
kendrick but you know this is a very
19:39
isolation isolating experience and as i
19:43
was sorry i'm just re rerouting back to
19:45
an original thread
19:47
i don't these are
19:49
passing for the most part in the stories
19:50
i've read um
19:53
it's not really a choice or it's a very
19:55
complicated one do you know what you
19:57
mean and it's very isolating and it's
20:00
fought with danger
20:03
ruth naga is with us and we're talking
20:05
about passing on netflix tracy i'm gonna
20:06
let you get the final question heather b
20:08
i know she i'm sure she went to urban
20:10
view um have to be live on channel 126.
20:12
you can check it out over there tracy
20:14
yeah ruth i love the level of
20:17
sophistication that you carry i
20:19
sincerely do it also reminds me of tessa
20:21
thompson who i admire deeply so
20:24
please
20:25
forgive my ignorance but i do have a
20:27
question that keeps ricocheting in my
20:29
mind just off of your last name because
20:32
nega makes me think of [ __ ] and i just
20:34
wonder if anyone
20:37
tried to use that against you when you
20:39
were younger or if you just owned that
20:42
i can't be the only person who ever
20:44
thought about that no of course not but
20:46
you know another taboo
20:48
um well the thing is i think with my
20:50
last name people why don't you change it
20:52
you know my last name is my father's
20:54
name my father died when i was seven
20:57
and to to change my name because other
21:00
people have hooked
21:03
history onto it would kill me i'm not
21:06
that kind of person and it would
21:07
eradicate him and his memory and also
21:10
sort of this sort of anglo-centricism
21:13
of the world you know my name is the
21:15
very proud ethiopian name and i'm very
21:18
proud of that and yes it's given me
21:21
grief throughout the years but it but
21:23
you know what it has done it's made me
21:26
how do i say this
21:28
it's made me
21:30
really become
21:32
very territorial about who i am my
21:35
choices where i stand in the world
21:38
and um
21:40
it's given me a backbone a spine you
21:42
know and then and if other people have a
21:44
problem with it it really is at this
21:46
point in my life it's not my problem
21:49
and um it you know
21:51
it's it's it's you know if if if i would
21:55
let the racist history of this of that
21:58
word
21:59
affect me and my pride in my ethiopian
22:02
african heritage and my father
22:05
then i
22:08
i wouldn't walk tall
22:10
yeah i would feel good about myself
22:12
so in many ways keeping my name [ __ ] you
22:17
ladies and gentlemen
22:20
she's that [ __ ]
22:37
yes
22:41
really great having this conversation
22:43
with you hopefully we'll get to meet you
22:44
in person soon in studio and
22:47
congratulations
22:49
absolutely nobody loves that
22:50
[Applause]
22:52
absolutely it's been a pleasure guys
22:54
mutual pledges are pleasures are so you
22:57
guys make sure you watch passing on
22:59
netflix
23:00
what is it november 10th
23:03
you are correct well it's in theaters
23:05
right now but if you can't make it and
23:06
you want to sit home on your couch with
23:07
your popcorn and your friends and family
23:09
watch it on november 10. okay go to the
23:11
theaters have the whole experience thank
23:13
you ruth once again
23:28
you
#Arts & Entertainment