It's time. She's taking back what's hers and embracing her identity. Thandie Newton is now going to go by her full name, Thandiwe, and she wants everyone to know it.
Thandiwe is the daughter of a British lab technician and a Zimbabwean princess and she recently revealed to Vogue magazine that her name was initially shortened to ‘Thandie’ in the credits of her first acting gig in the movie Flirting when she was 16 years old.
“It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine… The thing I’m most grateful for in our business right now is being in the company of others who truly see me. And to not be complicit in the objectification of Black people as ‘others’, which is what happens when you’re the only one,” she told Vogue.
She's lived through a lot of racial trauma in childhood and in Hollywood and Thandiwe says that she is now a stronger woman.
In the wide ranging interview, she also shared her some of her most uncomfortable experiences in Hollywood as a young black actress. She mentioned how a director, John Duigan, had apparently requested that she be a bit ‘darker’ for her role in Flirting.
