Yahoo News Bridgerton's Adjoa Andoh on frustration of getting "stuck in the lane of race"
Bridgerton actress Adjoa Andoh has opened up about how frustrating she finds being "stuck in the lane of race".
Andoh, who plays Lady Danbury on the Netflix period drama and previously starred in Doctor Who, spoke exclusively to Digital Spy while promoting ITVX's Breaking Through with Zeze Millz. In the interview, she spoke about how she gets annoyed when people of colour are often just asked about that one subject.
"Race is just one aspect of who we are," she said. "I get tired of only talking about race. I am so many other things. I am a mother. I'm an ex-punk rocker. I am a freak for all sorts of different sorts of music. I'm a member of my Church. I'm a Leeds United supporter until my dying days. There's a whole load of other things that I am...
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"And I think what happens to people of colour is that we get stuck in the lane of race all the time. We have to navigate that, and it's not our only conversation.
"It's not the only passion in our heart. And usually it's other people's attitudes towards it, rather than who we are, which we have to navigate. And then that becomes the only conversation that anyone ever wants to have with us. That's frustrating."
Not only has the actress admitted to being frustrated by being asked about race constantly, but she also stated that she doesn't like that the celebration and remembrance of Black history is focused into just a few weeks.
"I want to get rid of Black History Month," she admitted. "I want the history to be all the year around. I don't want it to be pushed into a month. Is there no history going on for the rest of the year?
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"You know, we could be talking about the history of me as a woman. We could be talking about the history of me in terms of class, or as an African, or as somebody who grew up in the Cotswolds. Do you know what I mean?
"It's like, allow us all of the history, all of the time – and allow that history to be everybody’s history. Henry VIII is part of my history because I have a connection to this country. The history of Black people is also a history that belongs to somebody who’s blonde and lives in Northumberland. You know what I mean? It should do. We’re all one society."
Breaking Through with Zeze Millz is available to watch on ITVX.
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