'Being first dark-skinned woman to lead Star Wars film both great and awful'

Thandie Newton

Thandie Newton says being the first "dark-skinned woman" in a leading role in a "Star Wars" film is both a "great and awful" feeling. The 45-year-old actor, who stars as in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" as Val Beckett, says it is high time that diversity and inclusion increased in cinema across the globe. "I am the first dark-skinned woman in a lead role in the 'Star Wars' legacy, which is both great, that it is finally a correction, and awful, that it's taken this long," Newton told The Guardian.

The actor plays the wife of Tobias, (Woody Harrelson), Han Solo's mentor and a member of his crew in the much-anticipated film. "Even Lupita Nyong'o's character was CGI" - relating to the character of Maz Kanata in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", she adds. Newton has two film scripts of her own in development and plans to direct both herself - one story is set in the US, while the other one in the UK. Both, she describes as "very personal human stories". "I really want to get to the f''king core of why we do what we do. I certainly don't think that I know, but I love stories that are really trying to find out," she says. Newton says both the films will feature female protagonists.

"I am obsessed with the female experience. I don't actually think I could write as a man. And that is everything we have in cinema; that is how our identities have been fed back to us from a male perspective," she says. Solo: A Star Wars Story will be released on May 24 in the UK and on May 25 in the US. The Ron Howard-directed origin story stars Alden Ehrenreich as the young Han Solo, the role immortalised by Harrison Ford. Donald Glover plays Lando Calrissian, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke and Paul Bettany also star.

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