It’s nice to shine a light on the British black experience
DIRECTOR NAT MARTELLO-WHITE AND STAR ASHLEY MADEKWE SPEAK TO RACHEL DAVIS ABOUT THEIR PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER THE STRAYS
WHEN we first meet Cheryl, Baftanominated star Ashley Madekwe’s character in The Strays, she is a young mixed-race woman living on a council estate in South London.
Stuck in an abusive relationship and fearful and frustrated about what the future holds, Cheryl eventually plucks up the courage to walk away from her life, vanishing forever.
Many years later, we meet the wellto-do, upper-middle-class Neve – Cheryl’s new identity – living in an idyllic countryside town far from the high-rise flats of south London.
She has two teenage children, Sebastian and Mary, who she lives with in a gorgeous family home along with her white husband Ian.
Neve practises her new, posh accent in the mirror and hides her tight curls under straight wigs, disguising her blackness and making her mixed-race children do the same.
When two young black strangers show up in town, a paranoid Neve has to confront the stark reality that her past can’t stay buried forever, and that her meticulously-crafted, privileged life might be about to come tumbling down.
The Strays, which is awardwinning actor and playwright Nat Martello-White’s feature directorial debut, is a psychological thriller exploring themes of race, class, generational trauma and identity in British society.
Nat cites Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Us as inspiration for The Strays, and says that he “felt like it was time” for a psychological thriller to explore themes relating to the black experience from a British perspective.
“There’s been really interesting debate about, say, black British actors playing African American roles in America, and whether or not they have that same experience – but I think the black experience in the UK is incredibly complex and nuanced, and also has a really interesting history to it,” says the director.
“I just think there’s so much that we haven’t really explored. And even though I met with one producer, who actually was like: ‘What about just relocating that to America, and finding a really big American actress...?’, be that as it may, it felt like a very British story, and one which I was really familiar with.
“I think it’s nice to shine a light on the British black experience, because it is different,” star Ashley, 41, adds.
“I mean, there are similarities to being a person of colour in America, of course, but it is different. We have a class system here, which isn’t really something that’s in play in America.
“And I think that Nat explores that in the film, the nuances of class and how sometimes as a person of colour, you have to modulate yourself and code switch when you’re around different class groups. “I think that he did that really well.” When creating his duplicitous protagonist, Nat says he was “really interested in somebody who has this kind of Darwinian trait to them, and it’s just really about their own personal survival, and that they have the ability to sort of be a chameleon, and kind of navigate and climb, literally climb and ascend those different classes and worlds, because I think that’s actually quite impressive to witness.”
“But then there’s also all the kind of baggage that comes with that,” he adds.
Nat and Secret Diary of a Call Girl and County Lines star Ashley have known each other for many years – they were at RADA at the same time – but the director reveals that initially he hadn’t considered her for the role of Neve/Cheryl as he had been looking at older actresses.
“But then one of the producers sent me a photograph of her from an interview she did, and she just looked like the character, she just looked like Neve,” he explains.
“And I thought, well, you know, Ashley is from Croydon, and she now lives in Hollywood, in the hills – she has had a really interesting journey, and I felt like she had the charisma, and the qualities of Neve.”
While Ashley undoubtedly shares some biographical similarities with Neve, she says it was interesting to explore the differences between herself and her character, particularly those relating to identity.
“Like, I very much identify as a woman of colour, and she’s trying to distance herself from that,” she says.
“She’s definitely complex, and I think she’s gonna stir up a lot of emotions for people, for mothers,” Ashley adds of her character’s plotline and its morality.
“She has a great line, when she’s questioned by her family about what she did, running away, leaving, and she says: ‘Well, you know, men do it all the time’. There’s a lot less stigma attached to that, for a man to drop his family and start again, start a whole new life.
“On one hand, she did what she needed to do. Nat and I always spoke about the fact that with Neve and Cheryl, it’s always like, ‘me versus them.’ She puts herself first, invariably, at the end of the day.”
Nat adds that his personal experience of traversing the British class system as a black actor was something he was interested in exploring in his first film.
“I think, because of the pressures of systemic racism, and certain pressures just full stop – the pressures of, I guess, even just being black in mostly white spaces... you constantly feel yourself, not always code switching, but you almost get used to the fact that you are the one different person in the room,” he says.
“And, especially my personal experience, I’ve traversed many different environments and classes. When I was working in theatre, I was mostly around white, middle class, and wealthy people, and you meet the patrons who are living in Sloane Square around the corner from the Royal Court and stuff.”
While exploring complex themes of race and class was important to Nat, he also wanted the first film he helmed to be a thriller that was gripping and entertaining in its own right.
“I really feel like a film at its best is about something important, but it also has an entertainment factor to it, so I was really interested in bringing those two things together.”
“What film gives you,” compared to a play, he adds, “is just a much bigger visual platform to tell your story.
“Film is an international medium, and I think it allows you to explore some really big ideas, you know, in a way that theatre does allow you... but a play runs for six weeks, and then it stops, and then where is it?
“Whereas a film lives on forever, which is exciting.”
I very much identify as a woman of colour, and she’s trying to distance herself from that...
Ashley reflects on her character in The Strays Cheryl/Neve
■ The Strays is on Netflix now