People would not praise the ‘little black girl’ when I was a teen starting out

THANDIE ON RACE AND HOLLYWOOD’S UGLY SIDE

Until people start taking this seriously, I can’t fully heal. There are so many problems to feeling disenfranchised.

“I keep finding myself alone. There is now an appetite for listening to women. But there’s women and then, right at the bottom of the pile, is women of colour.”

Thandie said that she usually puts her black mum rather than her white dad on her Instagram.

She said: “I want black people to feel they can trust me and feel safe with me – that I’m not a representative of this Establishment that degrades people of colour.” Yet as mixed race woman she feels she is not seen as legitimately black to black people. Thandie, who would often be up for a role against Halle Berry, 53, believes she was often seen as a novelty by people who were casting for parts.

She also said she would use fake tan to make herself darker in films.

“I mean, I was perceived in so many different ways, and it was always about the individual who was perceiving.”

Stereotypes

Thandie has appeared in a string of hit films, including with Tomcruise in Mission: Impossible II, in Guy Ritchie’s crime film Rocknrolla, and in the Eddie Murphy comedy Norbit.

But she turned down a part in 2000 film Charlie’s Angels believing it would objectify her and she would have to play up to racial stereotypes.

She said: “I just couldn’t do it... I didn’t want to be put in a position where I was objectified.” She was replaced by Lucy Liu, who starred alongside Drew Barrymore and Cameron Diaz in the movie.

The actress claimed Amy Pascal, then co-chairman of the producer Sony Pictures, had used black stereotypes as examples when discussing how to make her character in the film more “believable”.

“She [Pascal] was like, ‘Maybe there could be a scene where you’re in a bar and she gets up on a table and starts shaking her booty’.

“She’s basically reeling off these stereotypes of how to be more convincing as a black character.”

Pascal said she was “horrified to hear” Thandie’s comments, adding: “While I take her words seriously, I have no recollection of the events she describes, nor do any of her representatives who were present at that casting session.”

Reflecting on her career, Thandie said she felt ashamed about some of the roles that she has played.

Breaking down in tears, she said: “I know the nature of this business has had me play roles that I’m embarrassed I played. It’s had me misrepresent African-americans. “Because I didn’t know. I have not been of great service in my career. I guess it’s been of service in one respect, because there’s a person of colour in a movie, but that can do more harm than good – let’s face it.”