Actor Gugu Mbatha-Raw has quietly built a career
where she’s in control both on and off-camera
One of the best things about being an actor, Gugu Mbatha-Raw says, is that you can be ‘a bit greedy. You get to live many, many different lives in a year.’
It’s one of the first proper spring days, the type in which it’s impossible not to feel cheerful, and Mbatha-Raw is looking the part in a zingy pink top, fresh and make-up-free bar the remnants of some khaki nail polish. The latest life she has got to test drive, courtesy of new film Fuze, is that of a Met Police chief superintendent tasked with coordinating an evacuation of central London following the discovery of an unexploded WWII bomb. ‘She’s the main decision maker, responsible for calling the shots of how London is going to respond to a crisis like this.’
So, an ‘edge of your seat… mash-up of a heist movie and bomb explosion thriller’. To prep for the role, Mbatha-Raw spent time with the police and in the Met’s Special Operations Room. ‘It was really very interesting to get your head around the stakes of a situation like that, what drives somebody to do that, that sense of integrity and leadership.’ Fuze is a wild ride of a movie, a proper all-action film, but it showcases Mbatha-Raw’s ability to coax out the very human heart in each of the roles she takes on, however real or outlandish the circumstances around them might be.
She first made her name in a 2009 theatre production of Hamlet, opposite Jude Law. But 2013’s Belle, an 18th-century period drama about mixed-race aristocrat Dido Elizabeth Belle, was her big breakthrough (Oprah, whom Mbatha-Raw would later act with in Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle In Time, was a fan). One of the most versatile talents of her generation, her work has spanned TV (Black Mirror, her heartbreaking turn in the first season of The Morning Show) and film (The Woman In Cabin 10, Motherless Brooklyn), fantasy (Loki, The War Between The Land And The Sea) and biopic (for instance, her turn as the first Black woman to be crowned Miss World in Misbehaviour). She approaches each role with tenderness and thoughtfulness.
WORDS LAURA ANTONIA JORDAN
PHOTOGRAPHS Ekua King
STYLING Georgia Medley
Published on 12th May 2026
Shirt, £1,550, and trousers, £1,550, both Fendi
Hair: Bjorn Krischker at The Wall Group using Maria Nila. Make-up: Alex Babsky at The Visionaries Agency using Chanel Les Beiges Make-Up Collection and No.1 De Chanel Body Serum-In-Mist. Nails: Robbie Tomkins at Only Agency. Shoot Producer: Gabriela Velasco. Photographer’s Assistants: Louise Oates, Conor Rollins. Fashion Assistant: Amber Backhouse
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‘I NEVER
DESIRED
FAME’
Of late, thrillers have been something of a through-line for Mbatha-Raw. There’s the forthcoming Possession, scheduled for later this year, which explores colonialism, as well as Jed Mercurio’s highly anticipated Trinity, co-starring Richard Madden. Set on a nuclear submarine, you better believe she spent time with people who actually do that work. ‘It’s such a privilege to dive into a completely different world,’ she says.
Why are thrillers having a moment? ‘I think we’re very distracted right now!’ she laughs. ‘And there’s something about a thriller that grabs your attention. [You have to] stop scrolling your phone for a minute and actually watch.’ That escapism serves a vital purpose, she says. ‘I was thinking the other day about films and TV kind of being like the grown-up bedtime story. They give us a place to kind of have a break from our lives.’
Born in Oxfordshire, Mbatha-Raw is the only child of a white nurse mother and Black South African doctor father. ‘You’re very aware that things are unfair, you’re brought into the world with an awareness of injustice. And as simple as that sounds, it definitely imbues you with an awareness of the world,’ she says. ‘Certainly for me, growing up hearing his stories and his perspective definitely gave me a global perspective of the world and an awareness of my privilege. And I think that has really helped me feel grounded in the industry.’ They separated when she was young, but she remains close to them both. Having lived in Los Angeles for years, Mbatha-Raw got a home in Oxfordshire post-pandemic. The thing she misses most about LA, she says, are the hummingbirds, but she maintains a sunny enthusiasm that is very Californian.
Talking a couple of weeks before she turned 43, how has Mbatha-Raw found her forties so far? ‘Really, really good!’ she says. ‘I’m kind of loving it. I’m getting to do what I want to do. I feel like I’m able to kind of appreciate and have meaning in life.’ She agrees it’s a decade that looks different – younger! – to when we were growing up. ‘It reminds me of the Black Mirror episode [fan favourite San Junipero, an outlying feelgood chapter in the dystopian franchise] that I did. How old is your soul? That really resonates with me. It’s about your energy, it’s about your spirit.’
Left: Bag, £3,300, Fendi
Right: Dress, £3,700, shoes, £950, and bracelet, £530, all Fendi
Besides, acting helps maintain a youthfulness. ‘I feel like I do a job that is literally “let’s pretend”. I feel like I have the privilege that me hanging on to my childlike imaginative sensitivities is actually so important. There is a bit of an arrested development being an actor,’ she says, laughing. ‘But in a good way! Because you have to be able to access play. Obviously, you still have to operate in the world and do worldly things. But ultimately the thing that you have to preserve is your sense of play and mischief.’
Lately, Mbatha-Raw has taken on the very grown-up responsibility of being an executive producer on Possession, a title she also held on Apple TV’s Surface, which was produced by her The Morning Show co-star Reese Witherspoon’s company, Hello Sunshine (‘she’s an incredible pioneer and businesswoman in the industry’).
‘Obviously, as an actor, you are just focused on your character and your journey and to have the perspective of a whole production has been really interesting. It’s more responsibility in a way, more information. You know, you can’t necessarily just escape into your imaginary world,’ she says of her experience producing. ‘I find it fascinating. I think the whole process of a project from beginning to end, even how it’s marketed, is so important.’
There’s no doubt the Fuze marketing department have been working hard; it’s been difficult to get on the tube in London without seeing adverts for it. ‘People have been texting me pictures of my face on buses!’ she laughs. Nevertheless, Mbatha-Raw maintains she can operate with relative anonymity. ‘I get noticed occasionally, but I think you can sort of turn that on and off a little bit with your energy and with how you move around the world’.
Poncho, £3,200, and shorts, £1,450, both Fendi
Scarf (worn as top), £380, jeans, price on request,
bag, £9,100, and scarf (in pocket), £380, all Fendi
Shirt, £1,290, and skirt, £1,550, both Fendi
She is fastidiously private in some ways (she has never publicly discussed her relationship status). Fame – an ‘occupational hazard’ of some facets of her work – is not something she ever pursued. ‘I definitely got into this art form because I love acting. I never [had a] desire to be famous.’
Maintaining her privacy is a matter of ‘self-protection’ she says, as much for the longevity of her career as for herself. ‘I always like believing in an actor’s character. I want to go on a journey with them, not be distracted by too much information about them as a person.’ A degree of anonymity affords an actor crucial freedom. ‘If you’re the one always being observed, you’re never going to be able to observe humanity,’ she says. ‘You miss a lot if you’re like, “Oh, everyone’s looking at me.”’
Still, Mbatha-Raw has learned to wrangle her profile for good, like highlighting her work as a global goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Recently that role took her to Chad, where she met with refugees of the Sudan war. ‘We’re certainly in danger of being in an era of compassion fatigue, where there’s just so much to be worried about that you can become paralysed with not knowing what to do about any of it,’ she says. ‘But the UNHCR does incredible work. Seeing it firsthand really makes you understand and you want to share it. It feels like a responsibility.’
It’s a truly ‘soul nourishing’ experience, affirming and humbling. Mbatha-Raw keeps a daily gratitude journal. What is she grateful for? ‘I’m grateful that I am more established in my career, that I have meaning in my life and confidence to have boundaries. I feel incredibly grateful that I’m doing what I wanted to do when I was 11. You know? I made my hobby my job. I feel constantly filled with gratitude that I naively just stuck to that. It’s very easy to get worn down by life and I feel grateful that I still feel really optimistic.’
‘Fuze’ comes to Sky Cinema on 29 May
GUGU MBATHA-RAW
‘Obviously, as an actor, you are just focused on your character and your journey and to have the perspective of a whole production has been really interesting. It’s more responsibility in a way, more information. You know, you can’t necessarily just escape into your imaginary world,’ she says of her experience producing. ‘I find it fascinating. I think the whole process of a project from beginning to end, even how it’s marketed, is so important.’
There’s no doubt the Fuze marketing department have been working hard; it’s been difficult to get on the tube in London without seeing adverts for it. ‘People have been texting me pictures of my face on buses!’ she laughs. Nevertheless, Mbatha-Raw maintains she can operate with relative anonymity. ‘I get noticed occasionally, but I think you can sort of turn that on and off a little bit with your energy and with how you move around the world’.
YOU GET TO LIVE MANY, MANY DIFFERENT LIVES IN A YEAR
GUGU MBATHA-RAW
IT’S VERY EASY TO GET WORN DOWN BY LIFE AND I FEEL GRATEFUL THAT I STILL FEEL REALLY OPTIMISTIC