Jodie Turner-Smith used motherhood to overcome racist backlash to Anne Boleyn (Picture: Channel 5)
Jodie Turner-Smith has revealed how she overcome the racist backlash to her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the upcoming Channel 5 drama based on Henry VIII’s wife.
Jodie will be the first Black person to play the role of the fearless Tudor, the king’s second wife who was famously beheaded having been wrongly charged for having sexual relationships with five men, including her own brother.
What’s more, the Channel 5 drama will be today from a feminist perspective, remembering Anne’s autonomy and wisdom often neglected in story-telling of the fallen royal.
A recently released trailer and photos of Jodie in the role promise a spectacular series. Racist critics, however, sharpened their knives to attack the casting on social media.
But Jodie explained she knew the ‘human story’ of Anne was one that was hers to tell.
‘I had just become a mother and that was what really jumped out at me, the story of Anne as a mother,’ Jodie – who welcomed her first child, Janie, with husband Joshua Jackson – told Glamour.
‘I did know it would be something that people felt very passionately about, either in a positive or a negative way, because Anne is a human in history who people feel very strongly about.