Hard Truths star Marianne Jean-Baptiste has said there is still “a dearth of great multilayered roles for black women” in the UK and Hollywood, a week after missing out on an Oscar nomination.
Jean-Baptiste, who became the first black British woman to be nominated for an Oscar in 1997, told the Radio Times she had been forced to compromise in her career because of the lack of complex roles on offer.
“Sadly, there is a dearth of great multilayered roles for black women to play both in the US and the UK,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s changing. I really don’t.”
Jean-Baptiste was not nominated for an Oscar for her starring role in Mike Leigh’s family drama, Hard Truths, where she plays Pansy, a middle-aged woman on the verge of a breakdown – despite being some people’s favourite to win the best actress category.
Jean-Baptiste left the UK in 1999, citing a lack of opportunities at the time. After her best actress nomination for her depiction of the “quietly heart-breaking” Hortense in Leigh’s Secrets & Lies, she struggled to get work. Two years after starring in a Palme d’Or winning film, she, like many black British actors, moved to the US.
The question of why she left has followed her around her entire career. In a interview with the Guardian in 2015, she said she was sick of being asked about it. “I can’t tell you why I’ve not been invited to a party,” she said. “You need to go to the host and say: ‘Why didn’t you invite her to the party?’”
Asked why she felt she had to leave, she told the Radio Times: “Well, I didn’t feel as though I had to do anything, but I was being offered work in the States. I love the life it opened up for me.
“Initially, I went back and forth because my husband and I had two young daughters. After two years, we all moved to LA, and I didn’t work in England again for about 12 years. I enjoy working in London, but I’ve got that Cali lifestyle. I love going to the beach, I love the optimism and slower pace.”
After moving to Hollywood, Jean-Baptiste established herself in the US as a star of both big and small screen appearing in the long-running television series Without a Trace. She appeared regularly on the UK stage, notably as pastor Margaret in the National Theatre’s The Amen Corner, and she also starred in debbie tucker green’s hang at the Royal Court in 2015, and appeared in the second series of Broadchurch.
