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Drum: PROFILES
opportunity to kick Vin Diesel‘s butt. “I
shook up a lot of the dialogue scenes by
making them either more physical or more
erotic. It was great fun. Did Vin mind me
doing that? No, he was cool. He’s a good
if rather unusual person. He was incredibly
passionate about the project; sometimes I
had to extricate myself from evenings
when we were discussing the script
because he wanted to talk about things
from every conceivable angle. If I hadn’t
had a kid at home, I’d have been in for
some very long nights.”
In conversation, it’s very apparent that
family is a far more important part of
Newton’s life than fame. “Whatever I do,
it has to be the right thing for me, my
husband and my kids,” she explains. “I’ve
never had a career plan. I’m not tactical in
the slightest when it comes to choosing
projects. I pick scripts because I like them
and because they allow me and my family
to pursue a normal life.”
In return, Thandie’s husband, the writerdirector Oliver Parker (Loved Up, It Was An
Accident), protects her from the rough end
of the movie business. “Oliver’s very good
at keeping the bad reviews away from me
– he makes sure I only see positive things.
But even when you get good reviews, it
doesn’t necessarily mean a film’s going to
be a success. Take Beloved: because it
didn’t do great things at the box-office and
it didn’t sweep the Oscars, people think it
wasn’t any good. That film got some of
the best reviews I’ve ever read. It really hit
me in the guts when it failed to find an
audience. And I was devastated that it
went unsung at the Academy Awards. It
really made me rethink my attitude towards
that establishment.” Since criticising the
Academy is a sure-fire way of guaranteeing
Filmography 2000 to date
2005 – Crash.
A provocative ensemble drama which delves
into the collision of culturally divided lives in
post 9/11 Los Angeles. Thandie is cast as
Christine, the beautiful housewife of a TV
producer.
2004 – The Chronicles of Riddick.
Riddick (Vin Diesel), finds himself in the
middle of two opposing forces in a major
crusade. Newton plays the strong malicious
Lady Macbeth type character, Dame Vaako,
in the sci fi quasi sequel to Pitch Black.
2003 – Shade.
Set in the world of high stakes poker
hustlers, Byrne, Townsend and Newton are
looking for one big take that they can all
retire on. After they pull off a huge sting with
the help of someone called ‘The Dean’
(Stallone), they find themselves chased by
a ripped-off gangster looking for revenge.
2002 – The Truth About
Charlie. Hollywood remake of
1963 classic Charade. A young
woman (Newton) in Paris is about
to divorce her husband when she
discovers he’s dead and all their
money is gone. She meets a
mysterious man (Wahlberg) who
tells her the money was really his,
and he wants it back, seemingly
convinced that she’s hiding the cash.
2000 – Mission: Impossible II.
Thandie played love interest and
international thief, Nyah
Nordoff-Hall alongside Tom
Cruise in John Woos’ flawed
sequel. In the film they work
together to stop renegade
agent Sean Ambrose (
Dougray Scott) from
releasing a new kind of
terror on an unsuspecting
world.