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Thandie Newton - Biography |
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Newton was born in Zambia, to a
Zimbabwean health-care worker, Nyasha, and a white English lab technician
and artist, Nick Newton. The name "Thandiwe" means "beloved" in Ndebele
and the name "Thandie" is pronounced TAN-dee. Newton played a character
named "Beloved" in the film adaptation of the Toni Morrison novel Beloved
in 1998. According to Newton, her mother is a Zimbabwean Shona Princess.
She was raised in Zambia and Penzance, England, and educated at Downing
College, University of Cambridge.
Newton made her film debut in Flirting (1991). This Australian movie was
also a launch pad for a young Nicole Kidman, with whom she has remained
friends. She gained international recognition opposite Nick Nolte in the
Merchant-Ivory production of Jefferson in Paris as Sally Hemmings, which
led to her being cast in Jonathan Demme's Beloved (1998), in which she
played the title character and costarred with Danny Glover, Kimberly
Elise, and Oprah Winfrey. She played the female lead Nyah Hall in the film
Mission: Impossible II. When this film went over schedule, she had to pull
out of the film Charlie's Angels, and her character ultimately went to
Lucy Liu.
Between 2003 and 2005, Newton played Makemba "Kem" Likasu, the love
interest of Dr. John Carter on the American television series ER, and in
2004 also appeared in The Chronicles of Riddick. She appeared in Crash as
a wealthy black woman who, along with her husband, finds herself the
target of a racist policeman (played by Matt Dillon). The policeman
molests her before ultimately saving her life. Newton was honoured with a
BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actress in 2006. Crash also won the
Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005.
Newton was an introducer at Wembley Stadium on July 7, 2007 for the UK leg
of Live Earth. She was due to introduce Al Gore to the concert, but he was
delayed, leaving Newton to tell jokes to try and entertain the audience,
and talking about how she was thinking while driving to the concert.
Newton married English writer and director Ol Parker in 1997. The couple
has two daughters: Ripley, born in 2000, and Nico, born in 2004. Her
daughters were named after the character Ripley in the Alien films and the
cult singer of The Velvet Underground fame.
She is friends with Nicole Kidman, who recommended her to her then-husband
Tom Cruise as the female lead in Mission: Impossible II.
In 2006, she contributed a foreword to We Wish: Hopes and Dreams of
Cornwall's Children, a book of children's writing published in aid of the
NSPCC. In it, she writes vividly about her childhood memories of growing
up in Cornwall and the way in which the county's vibrant cultural heritage
made it easy for her to "enrich every situation with layers of magic and
meaning".
Newton swapped her BMW X5 for a Toyota Prius after protesters bombarded
the car with eggs at the gates of her daughters’ school. She then wrote to
her celebrity friends, asking them to join her in switching to more
environmentally sound cars. |
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Thandie Newton - Personal Quotes |
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"It was hysterical. We wanted
to make it naughty and fun. When the camera stopped rolling, it was
hard to stop laughing." - about her love scene with Tom Cruise in
Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)
"I use the film industry as a pleasure for work and that kind of
thing and it's not a pursuit to make me feel happy in my life."
"Having children is life-changing, to state the obvious. It's a
gigantic shift in your life and I welcomed it. Not to put too fine a
point on it, there's something about the shame that goes with sexual
exploitation, deviance, whatever. As a woman, having a baby
psychologically erases it all from your body. And that, for me, was
incredibly important."
"I don't put the pressure on myself to be a very successful movie
star. I want to enjoy being an actor and I want to be challenged by
the roles I take. What is lovely is that I'll get sent a small
movie, and you know that by virtue of me being involved they get
their money and that's fantastic."
"God, yeah, I'm good at playing the emotionally strangled person.
The woman who is in the worst place in her life. That's me!"
"I remember one day on the set of Flirting, Nicole telling me she'd
got an audition with [Tom] Cruise for his movie Days of Thunder.
Jokingly, I asked her why she'd ever want to work with him. We all
know the answer to that now." |
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Thandie Newton - Filmography |
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RocknRolla (2008) .... Stella
Run, Fat Boy, Run (2007) .... Libby
... aka Run, Fatboy, Run (UK: alternative spelling) (USA: new title)
Norbit (2007) .... Kate Thomas
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) .... Linda
"American Dad!" .... Makeva (1 episode, 2006)
- Camp Refoogee (2006) TV episode (voice) .... Makeva
2006 BET Awards Nominations Live (2006) (TV) .... Presenter
"ER" .... Makemba 'Kem' Likasu (13 episodes, 2003-2005)
- Carter est Amoureux (2005) TV episode .... Makemba 'Kem' Likasu
- Refusal of Care (2005) TV episode (voice) (uncredited) ....
Makemba 'Kem' Likasu
- Twas the Night (2004) TV episode (voice) (uncredited) .... Makemba
'Kem' Likasu
- Damaged (2004) TV episode (voice) (uncredited) .... Makemba 'Kem'
Likasu
- One for the Road (2004) TV episode .... Makemba 'Kem' Likasu
(8 more)
Crash (2004/I) .... Christine Thayer
... aka L.A. Crash (Germany)
The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) .... Dame Vaako
... aka The Chronicles of Riddick: The Director's Cut (USA:
director's cut)
Shade (2003/I) .... Tiffany
The Truth About Charlie (2002) .... Regina Lambert
... aka Wahrheit über Charlie, Die (Germany)
It Was an Accident (2000) .... Noreen Hurlock
Mission: Impossible II (2000) .... Nyah Nordoff-Hall
... aka M:I-2 (USA: DVD box title (promotional abbreviation))
... aka Mission: Impossible II (Germany)
Beloved (1998/I) .... Beloved
Besieged (1998) .... Shandurai
... aka Assedio, L' (Italy)
... aka The Siege (Canada: English title)
In Your Dreams (1997) (TV) .... Clare
Gridlock'd (1997) .... Barbara 'Cookie' Cook
The Leading Man (1996) .... Hilary Rule
The Journey of August King (1995) .... Annalees
Jefferson in Paris (1995) .... Sally Hemings
... aka Jefferson à Paris (France)
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) ....
Yvette
... aka Interview with the Vampire (USA: short title)
Loaded (1994) .... Zita
... aka Bloody Weekend (UK)
The Young Americans (1993) .... Rachael Stevens
Pirate Prince (1991) (TV) .... Becky Newton
Flirting (1991) .... Thandiwe Adjewa |
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Thandie Newton - Related Links |
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Wikipedia: Thandie Newton
YouTube: Thandie Newton
Thandie Newton at Babemania.com
Top Celebrities Sites:
The Celebrity
Cafe |
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