Ruth Negga: 'I’m aware certain people don’t want me to identify as this or that'

Being constantly questioned about her own identity was good preparation for the Limerick actress's role in Passing, a film about a black woman pretending she is white 

Ruth Negga in Passing, a film that opens in cinemas and will be available on Netflix. 

Ruth Negga has spent her life and her career exploring different versions of herself. The daughter of an Ethiopian father and Irish mother, she grew up just outside Limerick city and later attended secondary school in London. Today, aged 39, she is based in Hollywood. This has left her with an accent that pivots from rural to 'posh', depending on the situation. And with a nuanced understanding of where she comes from and where she’s going. 

“My identity is always under scrutiny,” she says. “I’m very much aware certain people don’t want me to identify as this or that. I know that. It’s always been a thing since I was a child. Can’t be Irish, can’t be English, can’t be Ethiopian. Because I’m not fully either or any of them. So I knew as a child that I would have to take responsibility for carving out my own space, my own identity.”