‘Passing’ as white: How making new film helped explain Rebecca Hall’s family history
Rebecca Hall was in her mid-20s when she first started to understand her complicated family history. The British actress-turned-director says most would look at her fair complexion and dark hair and see “English rose”, she says – but looks are never the end of a person’s story.
Hall, who has appeared in films including Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Frost/Nixon and Holmes & Watson, is the daughter of the late renowned British film and theatre director Peter Hall and the American opera singer Maria Ewing.
Her maternal grandfather, she learned, was a light-skinned black man who “passed” for white for the majority of his life.
Tessa Thompson (left) and Ruth Negga star in Rebecca Hall’s Passing. Pic: Netflix
It was about 13 years ago, when Hall picked up the 1929 novel Passing, by Nella Larsen, that she started to consider her own mixed-race heritage and why it had never really been spoken about in her family.
Set in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York, Larsen’s exploration of race and the practice of “passing”, which was not uncommon for light-skinned black people wanting to escape racial segregation and discrimination in that era, struck a nerve.
Hall pictured with Negga (left) and Tessa Thompson (right) at a screening of the film in New York earlier this year, and below with her mother, Maria Ewing, in 2010. Pics: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP and Alex Berliner/BEI/Shutterstock
Finding out about her own history led to Hall adapting the novel for the big screen; the story follows two black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Oscar nominee Ruth Negga), who could both “pass” as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the colour line.
“I think so many people are not aware that it happened because it’s a historical event that was necessarily hidden,” Hall tells Sky News.
“So a lot of families, it’s hidden even within those families, including my own. My grandfather was African-American and he passed white for most of his life. And that is a fact that I’ve only really fully learned details of in the last year or so.”
Before she read Larsen’s novel, Hall says she had no context or even any way of describing how her grandfather had lived his life, and why. “So it gave me an enormous amount of context and understanding and compassion and empathy for the choice.”
Passing tells the story of former childhood friends Clare and Irene, who are reunited one summer and Irene discovers Clare has been passing as white; she is even married to an overt racist (played by Alexander Skarsgård).
The film uses the notion of passing to explore not just racial identity but gender and the responsibilities of motherhood, sexuality and the performance of femininity.
Hall on set with Thompson and Negga, and below with Andre Holland, who plays Irene’s husband Brian. Pics: Emily V Aragones/ Netflix
It is not about critiquing those who chose to pass, says Hall, but about critiquing “a society that, in any way, judges a person’s construct of themselves… there’s the things we think we believe, the person we think we ought to be, that society wants us to be. And there’s the thing we really want to be, that we desire to be. And sometimes that can be a huge conflict zone, and it means sometimes that we’re hiding our true selves.”
Passing is Hall’s directorial debut and it has been many years in the making. “I faced problems both within the industry – I came up against blocks trying to get it made – but I also came up against personal blocks,” she says.
“[The screenplay] sat in a drawer for quite a long time because I just didn’t have the confidence. I felt like it was too ambitious… and I just didn’t believe anyone would let me make it.”
Hall feared that some in the industry would question her suitability for telling this story.
“The pitch meetings were particularly poignant,” she says. “I ended up getting very emotional every time I was pitching it to some financier because they would invariably ask me, you know, ‘why on earth are you making this?’
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“But I feel like I’m this sort of walking example of what this film’s all about. You know, everyone looks at me and has a whole set of assumptions that aren’t necessarily true. Or they’re true but it’s not the end of the story.
“Forever, everyone’s looked at me and known that I’m Peter Hall’s daughter and I’m part of a British theatrical lineage, and [I’m thought of as] ‘English rose’, and that’s sort of the end of the story. And the fact that within my own story there’s… so many other contradictory and elusive things sort of points out the absurdity of it all.”
Hall has shot the film in black and white, something she would not budge on. “In a very soundbitey kind of way, it just felt like the best way to make a movie about colourism was to take all the colour out of it,” she says.
“But I think more specifically what I mean by that is, I think sometimes to understand truths about humanity, we need poetry. We don’t necessarily need complete reality, sometimes the abstraction helps.
Negga as Clare and Thompson as Irene in Passing. Pic: Netflix
Alexander Skarsgard plays Clare’s racist husband John. Pic: Netflix
“I think black and white takes these concepts and sort of highlights that we’re so busy putting everyone into these categories, when no one can be reduced to a single thing. Like, you” – she gestures to me – “can’t be reduced to just ‘woman’ or, you know, ‘white’, or whatever it is… the great irony about black and white film is it’s not black and white, it’s grey. And this is existing in the grey areas, actually.”
Making the film opened up a lot of conversations between Hall and her mother that had previously been left unsaid.
“She’s extremely proud and she’s extremely emotional about it,” says Hall. “She said that she felt it had given her and her father who’s no longer with us a sort of release in a way, like an ability to talk about something that up until this point felt like it couldn’t be addressed.”
She adds: “I hope, sort of in the broadest sense, the thing that people take away [from the film] is, thinking about what the legacy of a life lived in hiding is. And that doesn’t just mean racial hiding, it means all the ways in which we’re not showing up for ourselves completely. And how we can’t because of how much society imposes something – especially black women.”
Passing is out now on Netflix
Will Smith has made his first major award ceremony appearance since facing widespread criticism for slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards.
The 55-year-old Hollywood star performed his new song – You Can Make It – at the 2024 BET Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday.
It was a rare live appearance from the Men In Black actor, who was banned from attending the Academy Awards for 10 years following the televised slap, which occurred moments before he won his first Oscar.
For his performance, Smith stood in a circle of fire on an apocalyptic landscape, with a large sun rising behind him.
Smith opened the song by saying to the audience: “I don’t know who needs to hear this right now, but whatever’s going on in your life, I’m here to tell you, you can make it.”
Lyrics to the song include: “The darker the hell you gotta endure, the brighter the heaven you get to enjoy.
“The harder the fall, the higher you soar, God opens a window when the devil closes the door.
“Believe me, they tried to bleed Will Smith, in the rearview, I see adversity was the gift.”
Smith was joined by singer and songwriter Fridayy and the gospel choir Sunday Service, who encircled him above from a high platform.
Smith’s collaborator on the song, Kirk Franklin, also came onto the stage and rapped during the song, telling the audience that no one “is on a bad chapter forever”.
Smith closed the song with the lyrics: “We are not being punished we are forged. Dance in your darkest moments.”
Fresh Prince’s big comeback
Smith teased his upcoming album, Dance In Your Darkest Moments, last month. It comes nearly 20 years after his last studio album, Lost And Found, which he released in 2005.
Many see this as part of a well-orchestrated comeback, a feat almost as tough as his 26,000-mile trek from the South Pole to the North Pole for the Disney and National Geographic nature show he fronted, Welcome To Earth, in December.
Ahead of his song’s release on Friday, Smith shared a video of him playing the piano, with the message: “Through some of my darkest moments, music has always been there for me – to lift me and help me grow.
“It’s my humble wish that it can do the same for you and bring you all the joy and light you deserve.”
Pic: Columbia Pictures
Smith first shot to international fame in the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, a role he won after becoming the first rapper to win a Grammy award, in 1989 for his song alongside DJ Jazzy Jeff, Parents Just Don’t Understand.
The pair went on to record five hip-hop albums together, with hit songs including Summertime and Boom! Shake The Room.
As a solo artist, he released four albums, with number-one tracks including Getting’ Jiggy Wit It and Wild Wild West, and winning four Grammys.
Big win, and big mistake
Smith went on to conquer Hollywood, starring in blockbuster movies including Bad Boys, Men In Black and Independence Day, along with his critically acclaimed performance as Muhammad Ali in the 2001 film Ali, which earned him the first of three Oscar nominations.
But he did not receive Academy recognition until 2022, taking home best actor for his role in the sports drama King Richard, in which he played Richard Williams, the father and coach of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams.
However, his biggest career achievement to date was overshadowed by his on-stage actions.
Now, two years after the event, this rare stage appearance follows the success of his latest movie, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, which has stormed the box office, and taken over $330m (£260m) globally.
Sir Ian McKellen has pulled out of a national tour after falling from a stage in the West End while performing in a play.
The 85-year-old actor was performing in Player Kings earlier this month at the Noel Coward theatre when he fell into the audience.
Pic: PA
The production had been due to go on tour until 27 July but Sir Ian, 85, has announced his withdrawal with the “greatest reluctance” to “protect my recovery”.
A statement from the production said: “Following Ian McKellen’s injury during the West End run of Player Kings, his doctors’ advice is to take time off from work in order to fully recover.
“As such, he will not be returning to play Sir John Falstaff in the national tour of Players Kings (3-27 July 2024).
“Ian continues to recuperate very well, but he needs the time to rest and ensure a complete recovery. We continue to send him our best wishes.
“As it was for the final West End performances, the role of Falstaff will now be performed by David Semark, Ian’s brilliant understudy, for all tour dates of Player Kings.”
Sir Ian had been playing Sir John Falstaff – one of Shakespeare’s most famous creations – in the modern reworking of Henry IV, parts one and two.
The Olivier Award-winning star said in a statement: “Two weeks after my accident onstage, my injuries improve day by day.
“It’s with the greatest reluctance that I have accepted the medical advice to protect my full recovery by not working in the meantime.
“I had been so looking forward to bringing Player Kings to theatre-goers in Bristol, Birmingham, Norwich and Newcastle.
“But I can assure them that, with David Semark now playing Falstaff, Robert Icke’s production and his acting company remain as dazzling as ever. Go see for yourself!”
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Sir Ian had lost his footing during a fight scene in the play involving the Prince of Wales and Henry Percy.
The Lord Of The Rings star was heard crying out in pain as staff rushed to help, and the theatre was quickly evacuated.
Sir Ian said he spent three days in hospital following the fall before undergoing “physiotherapy, light exercise and a lot of essential rest at home”.
He also thanked well-wishers for their messages of support, as well as the NHS experts who had diagnosed and treated him.
Following its West End run, the play begins a national tour, starting at the Bristol Hippodrome on Wednesday 3 July, before stops in Birmingham, Norwich, and Newcastle.
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A migrant boat artwork by Banksy which appeared at Glastonbury Festival has been labelled “vile” and “not funny” by the home secretary, James Cleverly.
Speaking to Matt Barbet on Sky News Breakfast, Mr Cleverly said: “There are a bunch of people that are joking and celebrating about criminal actions which cost lives.
Pic: AP/Celebrity Photos UK/Cover Images
“People die in the Mediterranean, they die on the Channel. This is not funny. It is vile. This is a celebration of the loss of life in the Channel.”
The art installation featured an inflatable lifeboat filled with migrant dummies in orange life jackets and was hoisted above the crowd and passed around by festival-goers during several performances at the Worthy Farm festival.
When challenged by Barbet as to whether the stunt could be seen as a commentary on the Conservative Party’s failure to solve the issue of small boat crossings, Mr Cleverly blamed the Labour Party, which he claimed had “hampered” his government’s attempts “at every stage”.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made “stopping the boats” one of the party’s five priorities.
Mr Cleverly went on: “Something like that, I think is deeply distasteful. I mean children die in the Channel because of the actions of these vile criminals and joking about it and celebrating, I think it is completely unacceptable.
“To joke about it to celebrate it, at a pop festival, when there have been children dying in the Channel is completely unacceptable.”
The small boat first appeared during Idles’ set on Friday, while the Bristol-based band were performing Danny Nedelko, a 2018 release which begins with the lyrics: “My blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant.”
Idles perform on the Other Stage at Glastonbury. Pic: Reuters
The band were reportedly not aware it had happened until after the set had finished.
Read more:
All Glastonbury 2024’s best bits
The politics of Glastonbury
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Glastonbury masterclass from Dua Lipa
The small boat appeared again during rapper Little Simz’s set as she performed on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday.
It was later confirmed to be the work of artist Banksy.
Little Simz on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. Pic: AP
The installation also drew criticism from Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, who told Times Radio: “I was really saddened by it, actually.
“If you look at what happens with men, women, children being shoved on to those dinghies – the criminal gangs only fill them half with petrol, so they run out halfway across the English Channel and start to sink, endangering people’s lives.
“I don’t think this is a sort of thing to joke around with at Glastonbury.”
Artist Banksy, whose identity has been the subject of speculation since they first gained attention in the 1990s, often uses their distinctive graffiti and stencil-style street art to make subversive social and political comments.
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