Thandiwe Newton Opens Up About The Spelling of Her Name and Overcoming Abuse

There’s come a time when you need to set the document straight and that’s precisely what Thandiwe Newton is doing. The Emmy Award-winning actress will now go by the right spelling of her beginning title “Thandiwe” as an alternative of “Thandie” which she has been going by since her first position greater than 30 years in the past. ‘Thandiwe’ means “beloved” within the Zimbabwean language of Shona.

“That’s my title,” she defined to British Vogue in her Could 2023 cowl interview. “It’s at all times been my title. I’m taking again what’s mine.

In a revealing interview, Newton spoke candidly concerning the backlash she endured for coming ahead as a sufferer of sexual misconduct in Hollywood, a whole yr earlier than the #MeToo motion rocked Hollywood to its core. The “Westworld” star went so far as firing her publicist, who suggested her to maintain quiet about her abuse as a result of it was “not good on your popularity” and would finally wreck her profession.

“There’s a second the place the ghost of me modified, you already know, and it was then, it was 16,” noting the incident, which Newton advised W Journal had taken place again in June 2016. Newton recalled {that a} director filmed up her skirt throughout an audition, and later found that he was displaying the footage at poker video games together with his associates.

“He derailed me from myself completely,” she remembered. “I used to be traumatized. It was a type of PTSD for positive. I used to be so distraught and appalled {that a} director had abused a younger actress and that it was taking place elsewhere, minors getting abused and the way f— up it was. I used to be mainly ready for somebody to return alongside and say, ‘Properly, what lets do about this?”’

Regardless of dealing with the challenges that include working in a sexist business, the British star refused to be silenced and raised her voice calling for pay equal to that of her male colleagues on HBO’s hit present Westworld. “It wasn’t a celebration. I used to be disgusted,” she stated of the win, which set a long-overdue precedent within the business.

“Although folks know they’ll converse out now, there may be nonetheless the worry of dropping their job,” she added. “I imply actually, folks nonetheless say, ‘There’s another person who might take this place, for those who’re not completely happy’, that type of sh**. I do suppose studio heads must take far more accountability.”

Newton continues to be standing and is much more dedicated to her craft and exposing all of the injustices towards Black girls within the business.” The factor I’m most grateful for in our enterprise proper now could be being within the firm of others who actually see me,” she noticed. “And to not be complicit within the objectification of Black folks as ‘others’, which is what occurs if you’re the one one.”