Amma Asante was the perfect choice to direct historical race drama A United Kingdom, according to her leading lady Rosamund Pike.
The Gone Girl star plays Ruth Williams in the film about a 1940s mixed-race marriage between a white Londoner and an African leader, and she admits no one could have handled the story better than the Belle director.
“I think she was really the perfect voice for this film, because of the way she bridges both characters,” Rosamund tells LatinoReview. “She’s a woman, she’s English, she’s of Ghanaian descent.
“She’s got a foot in Africa and a foot in England, and yet, she is very open about the fact that she doesn’t think she can do what Ruth did. She doesn’t feel that now, as a total Londoner, she could… but she’s also in a mixed marriage, so can understand some of those concerns, and it’s very important to her to bring a woman’s story to the screen.
“She felt it was as much Ruth’s story as it is Seretse’s (Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana) story. It’s not a woman’s story, obviously – Seretse is the principal character – but she put in the female element and she made the relationships with Ruth and Seretse’s sisters sing much more in the film.”
And the director’s attention to detail really impressed Pike: “She injected all those lovely details, where once she found out that it was the women in Botswana that built the houses, those round traditional Rondavels, she said, ‘We have to have that. We have to have Ruth helping with that’, as she sort of becomes acclimatised and gains the acceptance of the local community in Africa.”
Rosumund teams up with David Oyelowo in the new movie.
