Ruth is real Person of the Year
DONALD Trump stole the limelight again this week, when Time magazine chose him as its Person of the Year. Look, at least Nigel Farage or Vladimir Putin didn’t win. And it wasn’t even the biggest cover story of the week. Because Ruth Negga was on the front of Vogue. (The magazine, as against Vogue Williams.)
You’ll probably want to brush up on Ruth. Never mind the Vogue cover, she’s already hotly tipped for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Loving where she plays Mildred Jeter, a black woman whose relationship with a white man forced an end to the ban on mixed-race marriage in 1950s America. The critics are falling over themselves at her performance.
Mildred Jeter’s life story taking the Oscar would be a perfect riposte to Time’s Person of the Year, from a Hollywood elite still coming to terms with the fact that Hillary Clinton is in semi-retirement. The stars are aligned, in more ways than one. Ruth is on the fast-track to global fame. It’s only a matter of time before the Daily Telegraph claims she’s British.
This will require a massive readjustment on all our parts. If we’re honest about this, Ruth has slipped off the radar here since she appeared as Rosie on Love/Hate. Yes, she featured in 12 Years a Slave, but hardly any of us saw it, because we all stay at home now watching boxsets we stole off the internet. An Oscar nomination will put Ruth front and centre. An Oscar win and she’s Ireland’s Person of the Century, faster than you can say Bono Who?
Ruth’s rise and rise will also force a majority of Irish people to face the awkward truth. Why Limerick? Ruth grew up there. And it’s now clear that some of the most iconic Irish people on the global stage come from that part of the world. Richard Harris, Terry Wogan, Paul O’Connell are just some of the names that come to mind. And this is before we even get to Willie O’Dea. The most seismic thing to come out of this is that we might have to stop laughing at Limerick. Other people might have to face the fact that we have some of the coolest and biggest names in acting right now. Ruth is about to take her place alongside Michael Fassbender, Saoirse Ronan, Cillian Murphy, Aidan Turner and Colin Farrell.
You never know, this time next year, we could be relishing the fact that one of them is Time’s Person of the Year. Even if that puts them in the same category as this year’s winner.