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Entertainment August 28, 2017
She is killing the game, on and off stage.
Tessa Thompson has been on the Hollywood scene since 2002. Her flexibility in acting roles was apparent from early on in Thompson’s career. She went from starring in the intense drama “Mississippi Damned” to playing a bubbly, right-hand woman in “Veronica Mars.”
However, her moment in the spotlight did not hit the ground running until recently. In the last four years, Tessa Thompson has stunned audiences for her roles in “Selma,” “Creed” and “Dear White People.”
Her rise to fame is also opening up conversations about women of color in entertainment. Here are five facts about Tessa Thompson that may come as a surprise.
Before starring in her first film “When a Stranger Calls” in 2006, and her first television show “Cold Case” in 2005, Tessa Thompson graced a different kind of stage.
In 2002, she made her theatrical debut in “The Tempest” with the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company. The following year she received a NAACP Theatre Award nomination for her portrayal of Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836.”
She recently moved away from the classics starring in the contemporary off-Broadway play “Smart People” in March of 2016. This show tells a story of four intellectuals in New York City battling issues of social politics in America today.
Her co-star Joshua Jackson shared with the local New York station PIX11 that, “The content of this show is examining how race affects everything in our lives.” Given her recent work in “Selma” and “Dear White People,” showcasing the complexity of racial dynamics seems to be second nature to Thompson.
Tessa Thompson doesn’t fit into any boxes. She is of black Panamanian descent on her father’s side and has European and Mexican ancestry on her mother’s side. Much like her character Sam White in the film “Dear White People,” Thompson recognizes that identity is flexible.
Sam White is a biracial girl struggling to find herself on an ivy league campus. On the outside, she is a political rabble-rouser who leads the Black Students Union. However, behind closed doors, she has a white boyfriend and listens to Taylor Swift. Sam represents the multidimensionality of the biracial experience, and Tessa Thompson is an exceptional choice to represent her.
At the ripe age of seven years old, in a private school, nestled in a suburban LA neighborhood, another young girl on the playground called Thompson the n-word. She was traumatized by the event and homeschooled by her mother for years after.
During her teens, Tessa Thompson helped found a “racial harmony” club at her high school in Santa Monica. She identified in the club as black the first year, Latina the second year and white for the third. She told Buzzfeed, “I’ve always been someone that’s really fascinated by identity and really aware that it’s a creation.”
Throughout much of her career, critics accused Tessa Thompson of benefitting from colorism in Hollywood. Though her fan base is strong, many speculate that she is cast in certain roles because of her brighter skin tone.
Thompson admits that these claims are not easy to swallow. She told Buzzfeed, “I have a hard time with that. Because I just don’t think it’s true.” Thompson believes that when she is cast in a movie it is based on merit above all else.
In an interview with the LA Times, Thompson spoke about how she benefits from the changing tide in Hollywood. The film industry is slowly but surely bringing more women of color to the center stage.
She continued that, “to play young women who are not just the object of the narrative, but the subject of the narrative and nuanced and cool, that wasn’t really happening for women like me.” Well, it certainly is now.
Thompson is mainly known for her role as Bianca in the 2015 film “Creed.” Her character is boxer Adonis Creed’s love interest in the film, but it is far from a passive girlfriend role. Bianca is a strong-willed singer-songwriter who fights for her dreams while she progressively loses her hearing. Thompsom and director Ryan Coogler agreed that they wanted her character to have depth and “something that she’s fighting for.”
While Michael B. Jordan may be the star of the show, Tessa Thompson’s intimate and honest portrayal of Bianca was unforgettable. She told Hello Beautiful that, “In the context of sports movies, it’s really rare to find a character that is the girlfriend or the wife who is nuanced and has her own thing going on.”
Thompson doesn’t just play powerful fictional characters, she plays history icons, too. She also played the legendary civil rights activist Diane Nash in the Oscar award-winning film “Selma,” produced by Oprah Winfrey. And Tessa showed us her vulnerable side in the role of Nyla Alrose in Tyler Perry’s film “For Colored Girls.” What part can’t this girl play, really?
Tessa Thompson isn’t just drawn to the music industry. It’s in her blood. Her father is the singer/songwriter Marc Anthony Thompson who created the collaborative musical brand Chocolate Genius Inc. He also wrote the music for several theatre and film productions.
While Thompson is primarily known as an actress, she also sings in an underground electro-soul band called Caught a Ghost. The band released their debut album “Human Nature” in April of 2014 under the label +1 Records. Also, two records by the band appear on the “Dear White People” soundtrack.
During an interview with Billboard, Tessa shared that she is surrounded by musical influences. Many of her friends are musicians and she previously sang in a choir. Thompson joined the group Caught a Ghost after her buddy turned band-member Jesse Nolan approached her.
She mainly performs for fun and the music industry is still a bit new and scary, but Thompson loves the rush of it all. Tessa stated, “I love the sensation of taking a deep breath and jumping; when I perform with the band that’s what it feels like.”
Her music career has also bled into her acting world. Thompson wrote and performed the songs “Grip,” “Breathe” and “Shed You” on the “Creed” soundtrack. She admits that her musical abilities were critical for director Ryan Coogler when he cast Tessa in the role. She told All Hip Hop “He loves authenticity, so it was important for him that whoever played Bianca was also writing the music.”
Intentionally or unintentionally, the bulk of Tessa Thompson’s roles in film have centered on race relations. She disclosed to Buzzfeed that she appreciates being a part of the conversation, but at times it can be emotionally exhausting. That’s when her career went out of this world. She decided, “I want to do something so far away from that, I want to go to another planet.”
Tessa Thompson grew up watching Sci-Fi movies, but she never imagined that she would actually star in one. Like much of the film industry, Sci-Fi movies typically lack substantial racial diversity. The actress told Time Magazine, “I was really shocked because I didn’t grow up watching genre films or superhero films seeing people who looked like me in those movies.”
Thompson will soon be playing the intergalactic warrior Valkyrie in the film “Thor: Ragnarok” coming out November 17, 2017. She is flipping the script on a character who was originally a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Tessa believes that her presence in the film as a woman of color plays a crucial role by giving young girls someone to identify with. She continued, “It’s so amazing that moms are sending me messages that they’re so excited to buy this Valkyrie doll for their daughters because she looks like her.”
She also plays the tough-as-nails executive Charlotte Hale in HBO’s sci-fi thriller series “Westworld.” In the show, Thompson must deal with the mess in the Westworld amusement park, which is crawling with android “hosts.” If that wasn’t enough, there are speculations that she will play Valkyrie in the film “Avengers: Infinity War” coming out in 2017.
The possibilities seem to be endless for the talented and dynamic Tessa Thompson. As she moves between theater, drama and science fiction, there’s no telling what she will do next. Given her track record, she will likely steal the show. Keep shining, Tessa!
