Ruth Negga, the Irish-Ethiopian actress who became an instant star for her role in “Loving,” stuns on the cover of Vogue’s January issue. The film, in which Negga plays female lead Mildred Loving, is about the true story of the Lovings—an interracial couple fighting for their rights in Virginia in the 1950s. For the feature, Mario Testino photographed the 35-year-old, and Gaby Wood got an intimate interview. Below, highlights from the story, where Negga talks about her interracial background, losing her father, and “Loving.”
On her star-making role in “Loving”…
“There’s often a job that’s a ‘before and after’ for an actor,” she suggests. “This is that kind of job for me.”
On losing her father at a young age…
“We found out in a letter and a phone call. This was 1988. There wasn’t any grief counseling for kids.”
On growing up as an interracial kid…
“I remember thinking, I’m just me. When you’re a kid, you’re just you, aren’t you? It was when I moved to England that I felt it, because I was Irish and black…I didn’t have that many black people in my life, so I had to sort of search them out. And I didn’t grow up in America, but I identified as much with their writing about the black experience as I did with their writing about the human experience.”
Read the full story HERE.
