In other adaptation news, Irish actress Ruth Negga has taken a lead role in a highly anticipated film called Passing, based on the groundbreaking novel of the same name. Passing will also star Tessa Thompson (who appeared in the Irish Famine era TV show Copper) and be directed by actress Rebecca Hall. Passing is based on the novel by Nella Larsen. Published in 1929, it is about two mixed-race friends whose lives have gone in different directions since one decided to “pass” as a white woman and the other did not. Negga, raised in Limerick – by an Irish mother and Ethiopian father – had been taking things a bit slow since earning an Oscar nomination in 2016 for Loving. But after an appearance in the Brad Pitt flick Ad Astra, Passing should propel Negga back into the forefront of the entertainment scene. Hall, meanwhile, will be making her directorial debut with Passing. She has appeared in many films, including the Irish Boston crime flick The Town. ♦
You Won’t Want to “Pass” on this.
Ruth Negga at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
Ruth Negga does not look white enough to play a mixed-race white woman. Rebecca Hall (herself a mixed race white woman) should know better since she is the white-identified daughter of a multiracial American woman and the white and British Sir Peter Hall. The term “passing for white” is a racist expression meaning that an “inferior” person is being substituted for a “superior” one. It implies that one is NOT GOOD ENOUGH to claim one’s European ancestry and white identity.