Thandie Newton shocked over ‘Winslet’ comment

Sydney: ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ star Thandie Newton has revealed that she was once left speechless when a fellow actor commiserated with her for not being British actress Kate Winslet.

Newton, 38, who was born and raised in England to a Zimbabwean mother and British father, is proud of her roots and doesn’t let ethnicity define her. However, she says unfortunately other people do, even in moments when she should be enjoying her achievements, as she was once compared to Winslet. “I remember this guy came up to me once, an actor whose name I won’t mention, but a black British actor came up and said, ‘Congratulations Thandie, you’ve done really well, although you know if you had been Kate Winslet your life would have been very different,’ meaning that if I’d been white,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying in an interview with Pride magazine. “I mean I don’t know what he was trying to say. And I just thought ‘wow’,” she added. Newton also revealed that as a youngster she looked to Michael Jackson for inspiration because she felt the late music icon made her feel accepted. ANI