Ruth Negga looks like she belongs in a 1920's silent movie.
With her huge baby doll eyes and slick of dark hair, the 36-year-old takes centre stage as the September cover star for Marie Claire UK and her old-school look is definitely fitting for it's autumnal theme.
Speaking to Marie Claire, Ruth, who is currently lighting up our screens as Tulip in the third season of Preacher - alongside her now former boyfriend Dominic Cooper - is getting ready to take on one of her most daunting roles to date: playing Hamlet at Dublin’s Gate Theatre.
How does she feel about this challenge?
''I’m terrified. Full-body terrified,'' is her reply.
She is familiar with the play as she's taken on the role of Ophelia in the London’s National Theatre production in 2010, however, this time the experience will be a little different.
''For a long time, Hamlet’s characteristics have been monopolised by a certain type of person – these pale princes from the West. But what he goes through – his thoughts and feelings – they’re all our things, aren't they?'' she says.
Yaël Farber, the show’s director, has called Ruth the 'Hamlet for our times'.
''That’s about me being brown and a woman, quite explicitly and obviously,'' she explains.
The Academy Award-nominated actor, who was born to an Irish nurse mother and an Ethiopian doctor father, moved to Ireland at the age of four.
Two years later, she experienced tragedy for the first time when her father died in a car crash.
''I’ve always had that thing of thinking, “Do I have real memories of Dad? Or have I just taken a photograph of our time together and transplanted it into my brain?”’ she says unwaveringly.
''One thing I would tell people is that it’s OK to have your grief. You can’t do anything about it because it’s intrinsically part of you. And that’s OK.’'
Well now I'm even more intrigued when Ruth Negga and Dominic Cooper split up after reading this interview. Also, I love her https://t.co/eCLHVxaT1m
— Emma Fraser (@frazbelina) August 8, 2018
Ruth has always kept her private life private and that applies to her love life.
She started dating fellow actor Dominic Cooper in 2010 and reports hit the press in April 2018 that they had called it quits.
Ruth doesn't mind talking about him and actually reveals that the date of their break-up is totally wrong.
''We broke up a very long time ago,'' she says.
''It's just people knew about it recently. You found out a couple of years too late. Ha!''
Calling him her ‘best friend’, she also says that working with him isn't that difficult.
''I think if you really love someone and care about them, and you’re going to work with them… maybe it doesn't’t work for some people, but it just worked for us. I know this sounds like a f**king spiel, but it’s not. We’ve literally got each other’s backs.''
Ruth is steadily working away but she's quick to point out that even though Hollywood is experiencing a wave of diversification, that they have a long way to go.
''People go, great, that’s all sorted, and it drives me f**king mad. This is a continuing conversation. We have to move forward with the questions we ask and evolve with our society.''
She continues, ''if you’re a brown woman, that doesn't mean you have the same thoughts as another brown woman. It’s damaging and diminishing. We have to ask different questions.''
We have a feeling that Ruth will be blazing the trail and asking all of those questions herself...and we can't wait to see it.
