Tessa Thompson on Her Abiding Love of Shakespeare and Y2K Lip Liner

The sense of restraint is thick in Passing, Rebecca Hall’s luminous directorial debut, set in 1920s Harlem. The palette is stripped to black and white; a quietude hangs in the air, with slips of jazz filling the gaps between hushed conversations. For Irene Redfield, a mother of two played with crackling sensitivity by Tessa Thompson, her strictly held mores prove more confining than her drop-waisted dresses—particularly once she learns that her childhood friend Clare (Ruth Negga), another light-skinned Black woman, is living her life passing as white. It’s a revelation, then, early in the movie, when Irene (momentarily passing as… Read Full Article