Performing at the Globe is a relief after filming in US swamps, says Gugu Mbatha-Raw

Gugu Mbatha-Raw said performing at the Globe as Nell Gwynn was light “relief” after three months filming in the swamps of New Orleans with Matthew McConaughey
Change of scene: Gugu Mbatha-Raw with Sarah Gadon in Belle
Robert Dex @RobDexES25 September 2015

The thought of performing in the open air at Shakespeare’s Globe could be intimidating for some actors, but for Gugu Mbatha-Raw her role as Nell Gwynn was light “relief” after three months filming in the swamps of New Orleans.

The rising star of stage and screen — picked by the Evening Standard’s Progress 1000 as one of London’s most influential people in film — finished making American Civil War movie The Free State Of Jones with Matthew McConaughey before coming home to the Globe.

Mbatha-Raw, 32, plays the title role in Jessica Swale’s story of the woman who was reputedly born in a London brothel but conquered its theatres and became consort to Charles II.

She said: “Nell Gwynn was one of the first actresses we had on the English stage and she rose from humble beginnings, so she is just such an interesting character and Jessica has made her so vivacious and three-dimensional. Part of the appeal was I wanted to do comedy. I’ve never done comedy on the stage but I’ve done a lot of tragedy.

“The Globe is just so intimate and you have to hold the audience’s focus, and there is the sky up above and of course the weather, though hopefully it will be relatively kind to us. It is just the perfect collision of character and space.

“After three months in the swamps of New Orleans it’s a relief to do something theatrical and light and there are no alligators in the Thames.”

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Mbatha-Raw’s starring role opposite McConaughey in The Free State Of Jones follows her acclaimed performance in period drama Belle, based on the true story of the mixed-race niece of the Earl of Mansfield. Her stage career has seen her play Ophelia opposite Jude Law in Michael Grandage’s Hamlet and Juliet to Andrew Garfield’s Romeo. She has three more films on the horizon but is keeping tight-lipped about them.

Nell Gwynn reunites Mbatha-Raw with Swale, an old friend, and the pair are sharing a flat for the play’s run. The actress said: “Our friendship has weathered lots of life events so I wasn’t worried about working together and it is nice to work with someone you have such a close relationship with.”

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