As an aspiring actor , Naomi Ackie just wanted to be seen . She eventually was , by J . J . Abrams ,
who cast her in 2019 ’ s Star Wars : e Rise of Skywalker , a movie that was seen by more people than almost any other that year . Now , as she gets set to play Whitney Houston in the upcoming biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody , the London native tells andiwe Newton that there ’ s more to being seen than meets the eye .
THANDIWE NEWTON : Hello , gorgeous !
NAOMI ACKIE : I haven ’ t seen you in forever , Thandi — Thandiwe !
NEWTON : Thandiwe .
ACKIE : I love that you did that , by the way .
NEWTON : It was a long time coming . For years I was scared because I felt that everything that I was and that I ’ d done was associated with the name in the credits that had been wrongly installed . I was like , “ People won ’ t be able to find me anymore ,” and then suddenly , I was like , “ I don ’ t care if people can ’ t find me ,” because they ’ ll find Maeve , and they ’ ll find Sandra in the movie I just did . I ’ m just a conduit . The need to be seen has gone . What remains is the work .
ACKIE : I won ’ t lie to you , these last two years have really made me question this thing about being seen . What ’ s so crazy about it is I grew up with this need to be seen , and suddenly I ’ m in a place where I ’ m going to be hyper-visible , and I ’ m like , “ No , I don ’ t want it !” I want to have a sense of ease about the work that I do , but it is so tangled up in expectation and pressures , and the fact that it ’ s not just acting . It ’ s everything around it and what that means . When you ’ re younger , you think it matters .
NEWTON : When we ’ re young , the need to be understood and seen is profound . I ’ m still working that stu out , too .
ACKIE : It ’ s also a choice . Because the thing I have loved and always will love , is the work . It soothes the soul in a way that nothing else does .
NEWTON : Nothing ! It connects soul and mind in a really profound way , and all the chatter disappears .
ACKIE : It goes away .
NEWTON : The chatter in the mind disappears . And to say that we aren ’ t our characters is horse shit . Sorry . We are hosts , and we invite our characters in .
ACKIE : And this is the thing . In my training , it was all outside body stu , and then you throw it away . There are techniques that you can use to have an emotional e ect on the body , and then it reaches the subconscious . But while I ’ ve been working in film more and more , I have found myself becoming really intrinsically tied to my characters while in that bubble , and it ’ s something I wasn ’ t used to . When I first started , it was very impersonal , very separate from the character .
NEWTON : That ’ s more stagework , because you have a beginning , a middle , and an end , and with each performance , you have a catharsis . In film , we ’ re nuggets of our character . But I think what I ’ m hearing is the need to protect your character . And in film , the character is so vulnerable , isn ’ t it ?
Flashmag ! Issue 121 September 2021
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