Thuso Mbedu, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Hi, Trevor. How are you?
I am fantastic
because I'm speaking to somebody
who is not just from my home country
but somebody who has also moved to America
and is making a name for themselves.
I'm less happy for your success
and more happy that I have somebody
to share South African stories with
and eat South African food.
That's-that's really what I'm excited about.
But, um, congratulations, first of all,
on not just making it into the industry
but making it in such a big way.
What has that journey been like?
And please tell me, how on earth did this happen for you?
Yo, I don't even kn-know where to start.
Um, but I heard
of The Underground Railroad in November 2018.
I was in New York for the International Emmy Awards,
and I did, like, um, the first audition then.
And I sort of just forgot about it,
because I didn't think anything of it.
I was like, "This is my first international audition.
I don't even have the accent right."
It's just like, go there and do your best.
And then I came to L.A. in... top of 2019,
and then I was able to make it into a room
with Francine Maisler,
who was the casting director for Underground Railroad.
And then, at the end of that night,
I got a call from my manager telling me
that it was a-a callback
and that Barry wanted to meet me the next day.
-Barry Jenkins. -Barry Jenkins.
And I'm like,
"Wait a minute. First of all, callback?
How? When I don't-- I don't even know!"
I wasn't-- Emotionally, mentally, you know?
Like, just-- Yeah.
And so I met Barry the next day.
At the end of it, he actually looked at me and he said,
"You are the character. I'm not saying you got the role,
-but Cora is you." -Wow.
You know, and then in those two weeks between meeting Barry
and the test shoot, I read the book, like, twice
in preparation for that.
And I was like, "You know what?
"I want to do this,
"but I don't know if I have it in me
"to serve the character as authentically
"as she needs to be served,
"but I'll just do my best,
and then the rest is up to Barry."
So what makes the story so-so difficult to tell is
you're talking about one of the most painful periods
in American history, and that is slavery.
When you're playing this character,
it-it must have felt strange and yet familiar
to be an African woman
playing a story about Africans who are displaced
and put into America.
What-what was that journey like for you
in building and creating that character?
So, for me, most importantly,
I realized very early on
that I had a lot of unlearning to do
in order to learn the truth.
-Hmm. -And the... that what I knew
about the enslaved body in America
was shaped by media
and a very white male gaze.
So that serves a particular agenda.
So I had to throw all of that away
and completely, you know,
be open to new information.
Barry sent me stuff to read.
He sent me audiotapes to listen to,
audiotapes of former enslaved people.
-Wow. -...when I heard them,
like, the sound and how they spoke
that something in me really shifted.
'Cause here I was, listening to people who were 75 years old,
you know, 90 years old but they sound 16.
And the English that they speak is broken.
And it made sense, 'cause they were being taught English
for instruction and not English for conversation.
-Right, right. -And what really struck me
is that the-the broken English that they spoke
is the-- an English that, if you went to South Africa today
or parts of Africa, that's how people in the rural areas
or in the townships speak today.
-Right. -So when-when that hit,
it stopped being an African American story
and became a story about Africans in America.
And so it hit much closer to home for me.
What was the hardest thing for you to do
in-in playing the character
and trying to tell that story as authentically as possible?
You know, man, I think the hardest thing to do
was actually outside the role of the character,
which was keeping a balance and, you know,
being aware of who Thuso is
and who the character was.
'Cause it's very easy
to take on what the character is feeling
and have it bleed into your everyday life,
-especially because what's happening... -Oh, yeah.
in the story is still very relevant
-to what is happening today. You know? -Mm-hmm.
And the character is shaped
by this huge sense of loss, rejection, abandonment.
And she kind of has to fight
to-to get that what she wants,
which is ultimately her freedom.
And, you know, being a Black woman,
being a Black body in the world today--
I'm not even gonna say just America--
those are the same type of struggles that we see.
You know? It's just it happens to be in a different time.
So I had to be very, very self-aware.
Mm-mm. Babes, when you're feeling this way,
that's the residue of the character
-and not yourself. Yeah. -Wow.
But, otherwise, on set, I always felt protected.
I completely trusted Barry.
When he pushed me, I knew it's because he knew
-I was capable of doing it. -Mm.
You are now pushing yourself, um,
to explore new horizons in the U.S.
I mean, you already lining up projects,
and one of the most exciting that we've seen
is that you are going to be teaming up
with none other than Viola Davis herself.
Tell me a little bit a-about that
and, um, how-how that came about
and what you're gonna be doing in that.
In the very first audition,
I was already working with the director,
Gina Prince-Bythewood. She was--
You know, it was a whole working session, stretching me.
But then she did something to me. She s--
At the end of it, she says, "Good luck.”
And I say, "No.
"You can't say 'good luck,'
"because now I imagine going to an interview
"and then they say, 'Good luck with all your other interviews.'
-It means, like..." (speaking indistinctly) -(laughing)
I was like, "But I want you to be my good luck.
-We must work together, you know?" -Right, right, right.
Yeah. And then, I think, a few days later,
we had a meeting and I got a-a chance to meet, ooh, Viola,
and I absolutely loved it.
Because from the interviews I've seen of her,
her process is my process.
And I was like, "I'm gonna learn a lot from her
if I get to work with her."
And then, eventually, we were able to do the test shoot.
And then... ta-da!
We're shooting it in South Africa.
It's gonna be awesome.
I'm excited.
Oh. Well, there-there y-you--
I feel like you've achieved the ultimate goal:
you come to America, you make it in America,
and then you find a way to make the American production
go shoot in South Africa.
And, look at that, you just got a free round trip.
Congratulations.
Um, Thuso Mbedu,
thank you so much for joining me on the show.
Congratulations on all of your success,
and I cannot wait to watch the full series
of The Underground Railroad
and everything else you're gonna be doing.
Thank you. Bye. (chuckles)