SA actress Thuso Mbedu plays the role of Cora in The Underground Railroad . Image: The Underground Railway s Twitter
After waiting for what feels like ages, Mzansi is celebrating #ThusoMbeduDay as the actress made her US debut on Amazon Prime Videos
The Underground Railroad on Friday.
Since it was announced that Thuso had scored the gig, Mzansi has been waiting in anticipation to watch her in action. The twice Emmy-nominated actress plays the lead role in Barry Jenkins adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The novel follows the life of Cora, a young slave who escapes from a plantation with her companion, Caesar, and heads north on the underground railway.
The Underground Railroad Review: Thuso Mbedu infuses her role with empathy and humanity, captures both terror and tenderness. Joel Edgerton's is a powerful presence. Chase W. Dillon is a consummate scene-stealer.
'Underground Railroad' Preview: William Jackson Harper On 'Shockingly Good' New Drama forbes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from forbes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Underground Railroad : Slavery saga hits screens
Two influential Black creators combine as Moonlight director Barry Jenkins transforms Colson Whitehead s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel into a powerful TV series.
The novel and the TV series play on the fantasy that the Underground Railroad was an actual train network
The 19th-century network of secret routes and safe houses that was developed in the US to help enslaved African-Americans escape to free states or Canada was referred to as the Underground Railroad.
Those who guided the enslaved people were known as conductors, while hiding places such as private homes, churches and schoolhouses were stations, safe houses or depots. The people organizing these locations were stationmasters.
Published May 14, 2021 Updated May 14, 2021, 1:32 pm CDT
The Underground Railroad is not an easy watch. Sitting at 10 episodes, Barry Jenkins (who directed every episode and wrote or co-wrote several of them) doesn’t shy away from depicting the trauma or violence faced by the characters in Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. That violence, both intentional and incidental, is often brutal and tough to sit through, particularly as white slave owners and their guests casually watch it take place. The aftermath of what these characters see and experience stays with them long after the physical scars have healed.
The Underground Railroad