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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 30 OctOber 2019
Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw dazzles with sheer variety of jobs

By MARK KENNEDY emy of Dramatic Arts and
Associated Press soon found parts on TV and
NEW YORK (AP) — Some- the stage, like on "Doctor
times it seems like Gugu Who" and opposite Jude
Mbatha-Raw is playing Law in "Hamlet." Subse-
some crazy version of show- quent highlights include
biz Bingo. the Emmy-winning "Black
This is a woman who has as- Mirror" episode "San Juni-
sembled an astonishing va- pero" and her first starring
riety of roles in her 36 years. film role in "Belle."
Big-budget Hollywood Her work often explores
blockbuster? Sure, "A Wrin- race — as she did playing a
kle in Time." What about biracial aristocrat in "Belle"
an 18th-century English — but she's also appeared
drama? Of course, "Belle." in work in which her own
Any romantic comedies? race is not commented on,
Check out "Larry Crowne." like in the multicultural cast
She's been on Broadway, of "A Wrinkle in Time."
in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" Mbatha-Raw's father grew
no less. And a classic Dis- up under apartheid in
ney musical with "Beauty South Africa and her moth-
and the Beast." Sci-fi? Of er is white and British. "Iden-
course, look at "Cloverfield tity interests me," she says.
Paradox." Voicing a pup- This Oct. 21, 2019 photo shows actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw posing for a portrait in New York. "I like the freedom to be
pet? Check out "The Dark Associated Press a three-dimensional artist
Crystal: Age of Resistance." that can explore all sides of
"I always like the idea Mbatha-Raw plays a love one else sort of sees them, Mbatha-Raw goes from the humanity."
of being a chameleon," interest opposite Edward which I thought was really '50s to the present day for She has steered sharply into
Mbatha-Raw says. "I always Norton in the actor-direc- beautiful." "The Morning Show," a se- the topic of racial identity
like to feel like I'm stretching tor's adaption of Jonathan Mbatha-Raw is an actress ries about the cutthroat off- in one current project —
myself and doing some- Lethem's 1999 novel "Moth- who does her research. For camera world of a morning "Farming," the harrowing,
thing opposite to what I erless Brooklyn" about a "A Wrinkle in Time," she vis- TV show that stars Jennifer real-life tale of an African
did before. Because that private eye with Tourette's ited NASA's Jet Propulsion Aniston, Reese Witherspoon immigrant to England in
keeps me interested and syndrome. Laboratory, so naturally she and Steve Carell. the 1970s who somehow
hopefully keeps other peo- Norton went back in time went to great lengths to She plays an ambitious tal- became a skinhead. It's
ple interested." to plunk the story in 1959 get the tone right — walk- ent booker and says the based on the life of Ad-
The actress has a clutch and created Mbatha- ing around Harlem, listen- show is deeply influenced ewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje,
of projects coming out Raw's character, a com- ing to Miles Davis and Billie by our post-#MeToo era who directs, co-stars and
this fall and they're typi- munity activist from Harlem Holiday. media landscape. "It goes wrote the screenplay.
cally diverse: the film noir who forges an unexpected "When you're filming in New to some really interesting Mbatha-Raw plays a kindly
feature "Motherless Brook- bond with the detective. York, the history is all around dark places," she says. "It's teacher, an amalgam of
lyn," the flagship Apple TV "They're both overlooked in you," she says. "And it's such quite juicy and Machiavel- three or four real people
Plus streaming drama "The different ways," she says. "I a treat because it really lian." who helped get Akinnu-
Morning Show" and the think they see something grounds you in a sense of Mbatha-Raw graduated oye-Agbaje's life back on
searing indie film "Farming." in each other where no place and time," she said. from London's Royal Acad- track. q

Review: Allison Moorer explores family's tragedy on 'Blood'

By STEVEN WINE Her father shot his wife scending the family wreck-
Associated Press and then himself, and the age.
Allison Moorer, "Blood" (Au- facts are set out in "Cold But there's still anger, and
totelic/Thirty Tigers) Cold Earth," a front porch fatigue. "The Rock and the
Darkness is the first word murder ballad that sounds Hill" hits hard, with Moorer
of one song and a recur- ancient but actually dates singing as her mother, de-
ring image on "Blood." No only to 2000, when it ap- scribing a difficult mar-
wonder — Allison Moorer's peared on Moorer's sec- riage. Eerie pedal steel
autobiographical album ond album. Nearly 20 years and discordant fiddle rein-
explores damage done by later, there's still an ache in force the mood elsewhere,
her parents' murder-suicide her voice. "Such a sad, sad but the arrangements are
in 1986 when she was 14. world," she sings. mostly stark, befitting the
Moorer has also written a The music confronts and subject matter.
new memoir, and "Blood" strives to surmount the The set ends with the ballad
makes the personal univer- pain. Moorer expresses "Heal," which finds Moorer
sal, with inspiration to be sympathy for her troubled at the piano in prayer. "No
found in songs of skeletons father as she sings from his matter how I try, I end up
and ghosts, loss and heal- perspective on "Set My Soul on the ground, another
ing. At the heart of the al- Free." ' orphan waiting in the lost
bum is the question Moorer 'Nightlight" is a love song and found," she sings. "Lord,
poses: "Can I untie the tie directed at her older sister, help me heal." She doesn't This cover image released by Autotelic Records/Thirty Tigers
shows "Blood," a release by Allison Moorer.
that binds?" she sings, teth- singer Shelby Lynne, the want darkness to be the Associated Press
ered to tragedy. beauty of their bond tran- last word.q