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    Thandie Newton: ‘Being the first dark-skinned woman in Star Wars is great... and awful'

    With roles in Westworld and Solo: A Star Wars Story, the actor is at the top of her game. From navigating the industry as a black British woman, to ‘brainwashing’ - the journey there wasn’t always easy
    by Jane Mulkerrins May 19, 2018 6 minutes
    Thandie Newton as Val in Solo: A Star Wars Story Photograph: 2018 Lucasfilm Ltd

    Thandie Newton is, by her own admission, “having quite a good run at the moment”. Over the past 18 months, she has earned a Golden Globe nomination for her role as Maeve Millay, a robot madam in the HBO series Westworld, and a TV Bafta nomination for playing DCI Roz Huntley in the BBC One drama Line of Duty. On Thursday, she will be inducted into one of the biggest film franchises of them all, with the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, in which she plays Val. She’ll probably get her own figurine. Not bad for a woman who admits that she wasn’t really into sci-fi and westerns, or even that keen on doing television.

    “I just didn’t see television as being reflective of stories I was interested in,” she says. “But I wanted to be home more, and TV was changing, and my agent said: ‘If you want to work in British TV, this is it – Line of Duty.’”

    Her desire to be home more is a major motivation, albeit one she is still struggling to fulfil.

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