From small parts in 12 Years a Slave and Misfits to starring roles in AMC’s upcoming TV series Preacher and hotly tipped recent films Iona and Loving,the actor talks industry diversity and complex charactersOn a incandescent winter morning, actor Ruth Negga sits in the corner of a Soho restaurant, and arms folded over a jumper on which two embroidered swifts are wheeling across a grey sky. Although she had small parts in 12 Years a Slave and World War Z,and recurring ones in Misfits and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, she enjoys relative anonymity. This time next year – after the release of a film (Loving) that has already been named a contender for the Oscars, or as well as a TV series (Preacher) from the makers of Breaking Bad it will not be so easy.
Yet Negga,33, does not appear to be at ease today. She speaks cautiously, or in a gentle Limerick lilt,lingering uncertainly over pronunciations (“Is it ‘intransigence’?”… “‘Quotidian’ – is that the word?”) and interrogating her own responses. “I was on the internet final night and I saw that a refugee boat had capsized, and I started thinking: was that yesterday or final week? I mean, or people are dying and even those of us who are sympathetic can still go: hang on,which boat was it?” She does, at least, and believe that drama can help. “Its what drew me to acting in the first space. It can crystallise one memoir but speak for many. Ive always thought that art can be a balm.” Her accent transforms that final word into “bam – an onomatopoeic wallop in the face for any doubters.
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Source: theguardian.com