The Wonder Of Gugu

Gugu Mbatha-Raw was the award-winning actress in danger of becoming cinema’s best-kept secret. Until now.

- Bim Adewunmi

Gugu Mbatha-Raw, 35, and I had plans for when we met – highfalutin plans. In light of her role in Disney’s blockbuster A Wrinkle in Time (which is set to hit SA cinemas from 4 May), we were going to take in some crisp air and chat animatedly about life, the universe and everything, as we strolled around London’s Royal Observatory. London, however, had other plans, and a deep, shifting mist obscures what should be a panoramic view of the city. “Oh, wait – I can see the Thames! It’s that brown sludge,” Gugu says. She turns to me with her woolly black hat pulled low over her curls. “Is there somewhere to get a cup of tea?”

So off we go to find a cuppa. “This is cosy,” says Gugu, as we settle in at a nearby café and order green tea for her, mint for me. She smiles broadly, as well she might. The 35-year-old actress from Oxfordshire has just returned to the UK after an astonishing three-year period of near-constant filming that promises – finally – to transform her into an international star.

To be fair, if you don’t know about Gugu yet, it’s not for any lack of trying on her part. From supporting roles with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Larry Crowne to playing the feather duster Plumette in last year’s mega-hit Beauty and the Beast, as well as her captivating turn as Dido Elizabeth Belle in Amma Asante’s 2013 film, Belle, she has a steadily building fan base. And her recent lead in the romantic drama Irreplaceable You, released globally on Netflix, will have garnered her a few more. And a particular favourite came in 2016, when she starred in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror, playing Kelly in season three’s standout episode ‘San Junipero’. (“One of the most compelling pieces of TV I’d ever read,” she says.)