Gugu Mbatha-Raw dishes on Belle
Belle is the true story of an illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Navy admiral who was pivotal in England’s slavery abolition. Gugu Mbatha-Raw was given the lofty task of portraying Dido Elizabeth Belle, a intrepid beauty raised by her aristocratic great uncle, Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson).
According to the actress, she was drawn to the role because of its basis as a love story and because it was a period piece boldly detailing the life of a woman of color.
“For me it’s a wonderful love story at its heart; I was really excited also at the fact that it’s based on a real painting,” said Mbatha-Raw.
“When I saw the postcard of Dido and Elizabeth I was intrigued and I went to Kenwood House, which is where the film is set and explored around there. … I’d never seen a story told like this, from this perspective before. We’re very familiar with this world from other adaptations of the classics, but nothing told from the perspective of a woman of color and to be directed by a woman of color, that was a wonderful combination.”
Mbatha-Raw also dished on Dido’s struggle to be accepted by her white counterparts. Although Dido has a distinguished lineage and inheritance left to her by her late father, Dido’s skin color, given to her by her mother, a slave, keeps her from fully participating in the traditions of her social standing. The wealthy gentlewoman who teeters between being raised like a sister to her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray (Sarah Gadon) and being treated like the family pet, is left to wonder if she’ll ever truly find love or be damned to be coveted by men who can’t see past her epidermis.
“It’s kind of very complex,” said Mbatha-Raw. “She is the daughter of a slave but also the daughter of naval aristocracy and the family embraced her to a degree.
“There are limitations to her equality and if there are limitations to your equality, that’s not equality. I wanted to explore the nuances of those humiliations she goes through on a daily basis, like not being able to dine with the family and being ‘exoticized’ by these men who want to marry her but are sort of clumsily acquiring her as a trophy. All of those things were a complex cocktail of ideas to explore.”
Amma Asante’s Belle hits theaters Friday, May 2, 2014. -danielle canada
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