Today, November 6th, is Thandie Newton’s 39th birthday! Thandie Newton Web wants to wish Thandie an amazing day today!

Last night was the press night for Thandie Newton’s stage debut in “Death And The Maiden”. I have just added 36 photos from the performance, curtain call and after party into our photo gallery!

Get Thandie Newton talking about the cares of the world and you won’t get a word in edgeways for 45 minutes. Global injustice; the conflict in Congo; women’s rights, the war on terror: Newton has an opinion about them all.

‘I always had an academic approach that meant I was pretty passive,’ says the Cambridge social anthropology graduate, cross-legged in the dressing room at the newly named Harold Pinter Theatre in London that will be her home for the next few months.

‘But when I played Condoleezza Rice in Oliver Stone’s W, I did a huge amount of research into the Bush administration. In terms of modern politics, I was absolutely plugged in and have been ever since.’

Newton’s political conscience is well served by her current project, Ariel Dorfman’s 1991 thriller Death And The Maiden, in which she plays Paulina, a woman from an unnamed Latin American country.

She believes she has come face-to-face with the man who tortured her several years previously when her husband invites a stranger round for dinner. The ensuing game of cat and mouse is as tense as a whip, Paulina confronting her tormenter in a play that is ultimately as ambiguous as it is terrifying.

How does she think it will fare now, given that it was written in response to Augusto Pinochet’s murderous regime in Chile? After all, torture is no longer the preserve of dictatorships but a tool apparently used across the arena of international politics.

Newton leaps on this. ‘It feels incredibly current,’ she says passionately. ‘We all live in the global village. And silent permission is given by the global community. It’s unacceptable.’

Petite, warm and refreshingly unguarded, at 38, Newton is one of our most recognised actresses, even if her versatile career has yet to quite match her profile. There have been Hollywood blockbusters, indie projects, comedies and serious drama but it hasn’t quite hit the heights that her Bafta award-winning performance as a sexually assaulted woman in 2004’s Oscar-winning Crash promised.

Death And The Maiden marks her stage debut with a part she describes as a ‘pinnacle’ for any actress. Yet, you sense Newton has always had a slightly playful rather than strategic attitude towards her career, taking projects because they sound fun, or because they won’t take her away from her family (she has two daughters with the film-maker Ol Parker) for too long.

‘Because I didn’t train as an actor I never pigeonholed myself, and therefore my attitude is always “why not?” she says. ‘But I find I have to fight quite a lot of the time. With [2007 comedy] Norbit, I had to really convince them I was light-hearted.’

Newton was born to a Zimbabwean mother and English father, and declares her mixed cultural heritage a blessing. ‘I don’t have that herd mentality of “this is my patch and these are my people”,’ she says. ‘I’ve always looked outside because my family have lived in another country.’

She doesn’t like talking about Zimbabwe but it’s clear Africa is very dear to her. And, to be fair, she puts her money where her mouth is. Newton may sound slightly bleeding hearted at times but she has travelled to Mali to campaign for clean water and is on the board of Eve Ensler’s V-Day charity, which helps rehabilitate female victims of violence.

She feels the responsibility of fame keenly. ‘I think the first time I had my picture in a paper, I joined up with ChildLine,’ Newton says.

Ah, yes, the papers. Newton is often in them, invariably beautifully turned out in designer clothes. There is the slight suggestion that this bothers her.

‘To be honest, I’ve been up for jobs where people have thought: “She’s too attractive,”’ she says with a snort. ‘And I haven’t got them. So it’s pleasing when someone like Oliver Stone can see me as an actress rather than someone in Harper’s.’ Yet she also admits to loving it.

‘I used to be a bit of a hermit,’ says Newton. But after Crash, I had to go to all these award ceremonies and needed a new outfit each time.

‘It’s just so much fun. Oh my God, I love dressing up. It’s like decorating a Christmas tree. I love being a woman.’

Source

Thandie Newton’s children didn’t “bat an eyelid” when she came home in a film costume.

The British actress has two young daughters with director and producer Oliver Parker – Ripley, 11 and six-year-old Nico.

Thandie played National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in 2008 drama W., which was based on the life and presidency of George W. Bush.

Thandie says her daughters weren’t fazed by her on-screen garb.

“They enjoyed W. I was at home one day in full make-up and my wig. They came back from school and didn’t bat an eyelid,” she laughed in an interview with BBC Breakfast.

Thandie has a strong performance background, having trained as a dancer before becoming an actress. The stunning star has revealed her youngest daughter is following in her footsteps.

“My six-year-old is a born entertainer. She entertains us till late into the night,” she revealed.

Thandie is currently appearing on stage in Death and the Maiden. The 38-year-old beauty says she was prepared for the challenge.

“It was about time!” she smiled when asked what prompted her to tackle a stage performance. “I’m ready for it. It takes a maturity. It’s taken this long to step up because it is such a step up. I tell you, it’s the best thing ever. I’m loving it.”

Thandie explained that being on stage in front of a live audience differs greatly to a performance on screen. However, she insists there are perks to both theatre and movies.

“There’s no second take, but there’s the next night and the next night,” she added.

“I’m a perfectionist so it will take me the whole three months. It’s extremely intense.”

Source

Thandie Newton can’t hide her excitement. The actress has starred with Tom Cruise and Will Smith and won a Bafta, but now she is about to make her stage debut in a West End run of Death and the Maiden. “I just can’t wait. Ten years ago I would have been terrified, now emotionally I am ready to do this,” she says.

It is a few days before rehearsals start and we are the only people in an enormous cafe at a west London studio where Newton, dressed casually in skinny grey jeans and a sweatshirt, has just been photographed for the play’s poster. Isn’t she jumping in at the deep end by playing the lead role as the tortured political prisoner in Ariel Dorfman’s acclaimed play?

“It’s such a great part and the opportunity to play a role from start to finish,” she says quietly. “Acting on a film is like having to interrupt peeing or an orgasm. Literally having to ‘uggh’ [she takes a sharp intake of breath] start and stop.”

Newton, 38, has starred in films for 20 years since her debut in Flirting, alongside her friend Nicole Kidman, but her stock rose significantly, especially in Britain, after she won a Bafta for Crash in 2005. “I don’t think people ever really knew where I was from before, so they assumed I wasn’t British.” Her latest film, Retreat, a tense drama co-starring Cillian Murphy, about an unhappy couple stranded on a remote island, opens this month.

Working in the theatre means a short commute from her north-west London home where she lives with her husband, the writer and director Ol Parker, and their two daughters. With Parker busy directing his second film, Now Is Good, Newton has been on domestic duty. “I was feeling smug at the start of the summer as he was working really long hours and I was taking the kids off to Ibiza. Now I’m tired, it’s such a marathon.” A few minutes later Newton’s mobile bleeps: it is her nanny phoning to say she has set off the smoke alarm by mistake.

As well as the opportunity to immerse herself in Death and the Maiden, Newton is looking forward to playing some pranks. During the press junket for Run Fatboy Run she filled Simon Pegg’s water bottles with vodka, so what is she planning now? “I wouldn’t want to do anything to them during the play, this is not a play where you want to corpse, just saying the word corpse in the context of this play seems incredibly inappropriate. But I think a dressing room door locked now and again is OK.”

Source