Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Photographic Portrait of the Month February 2008
Me, Myself & I (Thandie Newton)
Digital bromide print, 7 June 2007
Photographed in a Chanel lace dress for Jenny Dyson's Rubbish magazine (Volume 2).
by Lorenzo Agius
Born Thandiwe Adjewa Newton in Zambia where she was raised before moving to Penzance, Cornwall and studying Anthropology at Downing College, University of Cambridge. Newton made her film debut in Flirting (1991) and became widely recognised for the title role in the screen adaption of Toni Morrison's Beloved (1998). She played the female lead in Mission: Impossible II (2000) and appeared on television in ER (2003-5). Newton was awarded a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role opposite Matt Dillon in Crash (2006) and stars in Guy Ritchie's RocknRolla to be released later this year.
How I get dressed: Thandie Newton
The actress, 34, on learning to love her body, Bafta frocks and short skirts
Interview by Daisy Garnett Sunday June 10, 2007 The Observer
I know what I'm going to wear every day before I open my wardrobe. It takes me about a second to think it all out. A normal day for me is spending time with my kids (Ripley, six, and Nico, two), which means sitting down on the floor. A lot. So it's jeans. Tight jeans or boy-cut jeans with a top - maybe a bit of a chemise, maybe by Marni. And I love a cardigan, though my husband Ol groans whenever I wear one. He thinks they are unsexy, but I can't do without them. You can make your neckline plunge with a cardie, or you can prim it up. Either way it's always jeans, even though part of me hates jeans. Everyone wears jeans and I have a thing about that. It's because it took me a long time to get my identity together - it wasn't easy growing up a mixed-race kid in Cornwall- and when I think back, I can chart that process by the way I dressed myself. I have come to love looking a little different.
I look at my daughters - because dressing children is complicated in itself - it shows how you want to see them and how you want them to be seen. Ripley doesn't give a toss what she wears - she'll only say if something is itchy or uncomfortable. So I get to dress her like I'm her stylist. I love it. So because of that I've been thinking more about dressing. Because there is this idea that women get dressed for other women, but I think we actually get dressed to see ourselves.
I pride myself on having good taste now, but it was terrible growing up. I dressed like a 40-year-old woman when I was a teenager. I wore long skirts, tights, big sweaters and lots of make-up. My next phase was shapeless clothes from Ghost. I was desperately insecure about my body. Why? Women are. I was so unhappy during my adolescence that I wanted to hide myself all the time. That hit its pitch at university. I was so covered up then I looked like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I began changing when I met my husband and fell in love. I was 23 and we met on the set of a BBC film he wrote called In Your Dreams. Ol is such a pure, open, absorbing, unthreatening person, and he allowed me to receive and love myself back through him: he would never need me to be a trophy girlfriend. It wasn't as simple as him saying, 'Oh babe, you look good in a short skirt'. It's been a long burn. In fact it's only in the last year that I've been comfortable wearing a short skirt.
Now I love dressing up. I'd been hearing about Giles Deacon through friends for ages, and so at the end of last year I asked him if I could borrow something to wear for Vogue's 90th birthday party. This strapless black dress arrived 20 minutes before I was due to leave for the party, but I put it on and I was like, oh my God. I returned it the next day, and rang him and said, 'Baftas? Will you dress me?' He dressed Helen Mirren and me. Could you get two more different-looking women?
Last year I wore this stunning, big Eliza Doolittle sort of gown by Lacroix. I was quite firm about not wanting to wear a gown again, and I explained to Giles that I wanted something rocking, but quite back-of-the stage-looking. But as soon as I saw a sketch of a dress from his new collection, I knew it was right, even though it contradicted everything I had said, but dressing is about trusting your gut.
I had the same feeling meeting Giles as I did when I met the Queen. Twittery. It doesn't matter how supercool you are, when you are invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen - I went to a cocktail party given for British achievers - you cannot help getting excited. Thankfully I was in LA when I heard about it, so I was with my stylist who dresses me for things like press junkets, and she said, you have to wear Chanel. I got the outfit so right, you wouldn't believe it. It was a beautiful black Chanel dress with a sensible neckline and layers, like petals, of chiffon. It was perfect. Heaven. I was basking. The Queen was nice. We didn't talk for long, but afterwards, I thought, you're amazing. Imagine giving your life over to these things. She looked immaculate in a peachy pink suit with sequins. Not sequins like Elton; hers were more a speckled shimmer. Talk about getting dressed.
I imagine Queen Elizabeth must have people helping her dress every day, like you do on a movie. I hate that. The dressers are always lovely but I don't let them come near me. For me, costume is huge. When I go for the costume fitting, it's the first time I see myself in the mirror as the character I am playing. Because however much you think and read and do research, you don't do it in front of a mirror. For The Pursuit of Happyness, for example, I was given five dry cleaning outfits to try on and I knew exactly which one my character Linda - who worked in a dry cleaners - would wear. I put it on and I thought, OK, I've got it. In the script Linda was described as the bitch that leaves, but I saw her as a woman basically committing suicide. Every time I walked on the set, that's who I was. It was hard. There wasn't a lot of Thandie around.
I had a screening for the film not long ago - just for friends. I dressed for joy for that screening and I wore a Marni dress, black tights, a cardie and Marni high heels. Dressing up for dinner with friends or a low-key party is much more fun than doing it for the red carpet. No one is judging you when you dress up for friends and you just feel delicious.
Interview by Daisy Garnett Sunday June 10, 2007 The Observer
I know what I'm going to wear every day before I open my wardrobe. It takes me about a second to think it all out. A normal day for me is spending time with my kids (Ripley, six, and Nico, two), which means sitting down on the floor. A lot. So it's jeans. Tight jeans or boy-cut jeans with a top - maybe a bit of a chemise, maybe by Marni. And I love a cardigan, though my husband Ol groans whenever I wear one. He thinks they are unsexy, but I can't do without them. You can make your neckline plunge with a cardie, or you can prim it up. Either way it's always jeans, even though part of me hates jeans. Everyone wears jeans and I have a thing about that. It's because it took me a long time to get my identity together - it wasn't easy growing up a mixed-race kid in Cornwall- and when I think back, I can chart that process by the way I dressed myself. I have come to love looking a little different.
I look at my daughters - because dressing children is complicated in itself - it shows how you want to see them and how you want them to be seen. Ripley doesn't give a toss what she wears - she'll only say if something is itchy or uncomfortable. So I get to dress her like I'm her stylist. I love it. So because of that I've been thinking more about dressing. Because there is this idea that women get dressed for other women, but I think we actually get dressed to see ourselves.
I pride myself on having good taste now, but it was terrible growing up. I dressed like a 40-year-old woman when I was a teenager. I wore long skirts, tights, big sweaters and lots of make-up. My next phase was shapeless clothes from Ghost. I was desperately insecure about my body. Why? Women are. I was so unhappy during my adolescence that I wanted to hide myself all the time. That hit its pitch at university. I was so covered up then I looked like Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I began changing when I met my husband and fell in love. I was 23 and we met on the set of a BBC film he wrote called In Your Dreams. Ol is such a pure, open, absorbing, unthreatening person, and he allowed me to receive and love myself back through him: he would never need me to be a trophy girlfriend. It wasn't as simple as him saying, 'Oh babe, you look good in a short skirt'. It's been a long burn. In fact it's only in the last year that I've been comfortable wearing a short skirt.
Now I love dressing up. I'd been hearing about Giles Deacon through friends for ages, and so at the end of last year I asked him if I could borrow something to wear for Vogue's 90th birthday party. This strapless black dress arrived 20 minutes before I was due to leave for the party, but I put it on and I was like, oh my God. I returned it the next day, and rang him and said, 'Baftas? Will you dress me?' He dressed Helen Mirren and me. Could you get two more different-looking women?
Last year I wore this stunning, big Eliza Doolittle sort of gown by Lacroix. I was quite firm about not wanting to wear a gown again, and I explained to Giles that I wanted something rocking, but quite back-of-the stage-looking. But as soon as I saw a sketch of a dress from his new collection, I knew it was right, even though it contradicted everything I had said, but dressing is about trusting your gut.
I had the same feeling meeting Giles as I did when I met the Queen. Twittery. It doesn't matter how supercool you are, when you are invited to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen - I went to a cocktail party given for British achievers - you cannot help getting excited. Thankfully I was in LA when I heard about it, so I was with my stylist who dresses me for things like press junkets, and she said, you have to wear Chanel. I got the outfit so right, you wouldn't believe it. It was a beautiful black Chanel dress with a sensible neckline and layers, like petals, of chiffon. It was perfect. Heaven. I was basking. The Queen was nice. We didn't talk for long, but afterwards, I thought, you're amazing. Imagine giving your life over to these things. She looked immaculate in a peachy pink suit with sequins. Not sequins like Elton; hers were more a speckled shimmer. Talk about getting dressed.
I imagine Queen Elizabeth must have people helping her dress every day, like you do on a movie. I hate that. The dressers are always lovely but I don't let them come near me. For me, costume is huge. When I go for the costume fitting, it's the first time I see myself in the mirror as the character I am playing. Because however much you think and read and do research, you don't do it in front of a mirror. For The Pursuit of Happyness, for example, I was given five dry cleaning outfits to try on and I knew exactly which one my character Linda - who worked in a dry cleaners - would wear. I put it on and I thought, OK, I've got it. In the script Linda was described as the bitch that leaves, but I saw her as a woman basically committing suicide. Every time I walked on the set, that's who I was. It was hard. There wasn't a lot of Thandie around.
I had a screening for the film not long ago - just for friends. I dressed for joy for that screening and I wore a Marni dress, black tights, a cardie and Marni high heels. Dressing up for dinner with friends or a low-key party is much more fun than doing it for the red carpet. No one is judging you when you dress up for friends and you just feel delicious.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
2012
Thandie Newton and Danny Glover are in talks to star in the next blockbusting epic by Roland Emmerich. They could portray the US president and his daughter in 2012, the story of how the human race survives a global cataclysm. The film follows in the same vein as other Emmerich films, such as The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day. Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Cusack are already on board. Filming is set to begin next month, unless a strike by US actors prevents filming from taking place - the Screen Actors Guild, the main actors' union, is currently in talks with Hollywood studios over a new contract, as the current one expires on June 30. Newton is currently filming Oliver Stone's W, portraying US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, while Glover was recently seen on our screens in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind.
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