Thandiwe Newton just recently opened up about taking back her birth name after it was changed without her consent on a film she was once a part of.
The 48-year-old Westworld actress explained to British Vogue that “it’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine” in her recent cover story.
Now, she’s revealing just how it happened in the first place.
Click inside to see what Thandiwe Newton shared about how her name was changed…More Here! »
Thandiwe Newton is setting the record straight.
The 48-year-old Westworld star spoke out in an interview with British Vogue.
Here’s what she had to say…
On all her future films being credited with Thandiwe Newton, after the W was carelessly missed out and spelled “Thandie” in her first credit: “That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine.”
Find out what else she said…More Here! »
Thandie Newton is revealing why she spoke out about working with Tom Cruise on Mission: Impossible 2 and why she was “scared” of him.
“I just happened to be an older woman who has recognized that knowing the truth and speaking the truth has benefited me a hell of a lot more than being silenced or seeing people silenced around me,” Thandie told Variety when asked why she came forward with her story. “And I have nothing to lose. I have nothing to lose because I could just then not get hired, which is kind of normal for people in my generation anyway. So I’ve got nothing to lose and I would rather go out using this moment…It’s not about confessionalism, it’s not even about my confessions. It’s about that this is the reality of what people face.”
Part of what Thandie revealed about Tom was that during one difficult scene, he forced her to switch roles with him so he could show her what to do.
Thandie recalled, “So we rehearsed and they recorded it, and then he goes, ‘I’ll be you. You be me.’ So we filmed the entire scene with me being him — because, believe me, I knew the lines by then — and him playing me. And it was the most unhelpful … I can’t think of anything less revealing. It just pushed me further into a place of terror and insecurity. It was a real shame. And bless him. And I really do mean bless him, because he was trying his damnedest.”
Thandie also confessed what happened that made her turn down the 2000s Charlie’s Angels movie.
Thandie was just nominated for an Emmy for her work in HBO’s Westworld.
Leah Remini is reacting to Thandie Newton‘s candid story about working with Tom Cruise, and not exactly loving the experience.
The Scientology and the Aftermath host spoke to The Daily Beast about her dissatisfaction with Tom, as well as how she felt seeing Thandie speak her mind.
If you didn’t know, Thandie said she was “scared” of Tom on the set of Mission: Impossible 2 and said the experience was a “nightmare,” claiming he handed out Scientology recruiting material as gifts to cast and crew.
“That takes huge balls to do what she did, and if more people speak out in that way, and be brave enough to do so, I think we might get somewhere. Tom has gotten away with being this ‘nice guy,’ because that’s what Scientology policy says — to create good PR in the world and make those ‘good actions’ known. But if you actually look at his actions, they’re not consistent,” Leah said.
She also said she was reprimanded after asking why Tom was “the poster child” for the organization, “because Tom Cruise is considered a messiah in Scientology,” and says he’s not “this super-nice guy” like people believe.
One other very interesting star made headlines after following Thandie Newton on social media right after she made those comments about Tom Cruise. Find out who…
People can’t help but take note of the most recent person who Katie Holmes followed on Instagram!
The 41-year-old actress just started following Westworld actress Thandie Newton on the social media app.
In a candid interview this week, Thandie talked about what it was like to work with Tom Cruise (Katie‘s ex-husband) on the movie Mission: Impossible II, which was released back in 2000.
“I was so scared of Tom. He was a very dominant individual. He tries super hard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done,” Thandie said in the interview with Vulture.
Thandie also talked about a scene that she filmed with Tom, which turned out to be a “nightmare” for her.
Katie started dating Tom in 2005 and they got married in November 2006. They welcomed their daughter Suri in April 2006. The marriage ended in June 2012.
Thandie Newton didn’t end up doing 2000′s Charlie’s Angels movie and is describing the disturbing interactions she had leading up to filming that caused her to turn it down.
Thandie told Vulture, “One of the biggest movies I didn’t end up doing was because the director said to me, ‘I can’t wait for this. The first shot is going to be … You’re going to think it’s like yellow lines down a road, and you pull back and you realize it’s the stitching, because the denim is so tight on your ass it’s going to look like tarmac.’ I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t think we’re going to go down this road together.’”
She added about another upsetting interaction, “Then the head of the studio — I had a meeting with her, and she said, ‘Look, I don’t mean to be politically incorrect, but the character as written and you playing the role, I just feel like we’ve got to make sure that it’s believable.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? What changes would you have to make?’ She’s like, ‘Well, you know, the character, as written, she’s been to university and is educated.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve been to university. I went to Cambridge.’ She went, ‘Yeah, but you’re different.’ She’s like, ‘Maybe there could be a scene where you’re in a bar and she gets up on a table and starts shaking her booty.’ She’s basically reeling off these stereotypes of how to be more convincing as a Black character. Everything she said, I was like, ‘Nah, I wouldn’t do that.’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, but you’re different. You’re different.’ That was Amy Pascal. That’s not really a surprise, is it? Let’s face it: I didn’t do the movie as a result.”
Thandie confirmed the movie was Charlie’s Angels. “It was a big deal for me. Vogue had called to ask us to be on the cover, the three of us. But I just couldn’t do it. I felt scared. Did I feel scared? That’s not true. Look, no one was ever going to sexually abuse me again. But I didn’t want to be put in a position where I was objectified. That just didn’t feel good. This is a long time ago anyway, and all those girls are brilliant (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu). But if that was me now, I’d want to disrupt rather than run away. I think that’s probably the change in me. That’s not the only thing that happened. There’s the disgusting thing that happened with the casting couch. Just this grossness. I’ve got my little black book, which will be published on my deathbed,” she added.
If you don’t know, Amy Pascal used to be an executive at Sony and her emails were hacked in 2014, revealing lots of information that she probably didn’t expect to become public.
Thandie Newton worked with Tom Cruise years ago on the second Mission: Impossible film, which was released in 2000.
The Westworld star recently gave an interview with Vulture where she spoke about the experience, and many are talking about the story.
“I was so scared of Tom. He was a very dominant individual. He tries super hard to be a nice person. But the pressure. He takes on a lot. And I think he has this sense that only he can do everything as best as it can be done. There was one time, we were doing this night scene, there were so many extras with pyrotechnics and you name it, and it was a scene with him and me on the balcony. And I don’t think it was a very well-written scene. I get angry with him. We’re frustrated with each other. And we’re looking out over Spain. It wasn’t going well. And John Woo, bless him, wasn’t there. He was downstairs looking at everything on a monitor. And John had made a decision at the beginning of the movie, unbeknownst certainly to me, that he didn’t speak English. Which I think was very helpful to him, but it was extremely unhelpful to the rest of us. So this scene was happening, and Tom was not happy with what I was doing because I had the shittiest lines,” Thandie explained.
She added, “And he gets so frustrated with having to try and explain that he goes, ‘Let me just — let’s just go do it. Let’s just rehearse on-camera.’ So we rehearsed and they recorded it, and then he goes, ‘I’ll be you. You be me.’ So we filmed the entire scene with me being him — because, believe me, I knew the lines by then — and him playing me. And it was the most unhelpful … I can’t think of anything less revealing. It just pushed me further into a place of terror and insecurity. It was a real shame. And bless him. And I really do mean bless him, because he was trying his damnedest.”
Thandie continued, “I remember at the beginning of the night, seeing this slight red mark on his nose, and by the end of the night, I kid you not — this is how his metabolism is so fierce — he had a big whitehead where that red dot was. It would take anyone else 48 hours to manifest a zit. I saw it growing, and it was like the zit was me, just getting bigger and bigger. I remember calling Jonathan Demme. I described the night to him: ‘A nightmare.’ As I was describing it, it was clear that I thought I was the big f*cking problem. And Jonathan was like, ‘Thandie, shame on you for not backing yourself.’ He was really sweet. And then Tom called and I thought, Oh, this is it. The apology. No, he was just like, ‘We’re going to reshoot this next week.’ I’m like, ‘Way brilliant.’ And the next time we shot it, I went in there and I just basically manifested all the — because I realized what he wanted. He just wanted this alpha bitch. And I did as best as I could. It’s not the best way to get the best work out of someone.”
Finally, Thandie said, “He wasn’t horrible. It was just — he was really stressed. I had the most extraordinary time, and you know who got me that role? Nicole Kidman. I’ve never actually outright asked her, but when your husband is like, ‘Who would you mind me pretending to shag for the next six months?’ You know what I mean? It’s kind of nice if you can pick together. Nicole was a huge advocate for me.”
This isn’t the first time Thandie has spoken about her experience working with Tom Cruise and she actually named him her worst on-screen kiss.
