{"id":62461,"date":"2021-12-03T02:32:51","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T02:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=62461"},"modified":"2021-12-03T02:32:52","modified_gmt":"2021-12-03T02:32:52","slug":"passing-filmmaker-rebecca-hall-shares-the-personal-story-behind-her-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=62461","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Passing&#8217; filmmaker Rebecca Hall shares the personal story behind her movie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/11\/30\/1059824073\/passing-rebecca-hall-film\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>&#8216;Passing&#8217; filmmaker Rebecca Hall shares the personal story behind her movie<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/programs\/fresh-air\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fresh Air<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Public Radio<\/a><br \/>\n2021-11-30<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/people\/2100593\/terry-gross\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Terri Gross<\/strong><\/a>, Host<\/p>\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/11\/30\/1059824073\/passing-rebecca-hall-film\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 98%; border: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2021\/11\/30\/2021-11-30_wide-814b91159a6c6cd772bc8b5ce175ee1e5a937091-s1800-c85.webp\" \/><\/a><figcaption style=\"width: 98%; font-size: x-small;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rebecca_Hall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rebecca Hall<\/a> (right) works on the set of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Passing_(film)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Passing<\/em><\/a> with actors <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ruth_Negga\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ruth Negga<\/a> (left) and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tessa_Thompson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tessa Thompson<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Netflix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Netflix<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/1059824073\/1060115585\" width=\"98%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Actor\/filmmaker <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rebecca_Hall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rebecca Hall<\/a> had what she describes as a &#8220;real gasp&#8221; moment when she first read <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nella_Larsen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nella Larsen&#8217;s<\/a> 1929 novel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=2508\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Passing<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The book centers on two light-skinned African American women who run into each other after not having seen each other for many years. One of the women is an active member of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Harlem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harlem&#8217;s<\/a> Black community. The other is married to a white man and is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=5864\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">passing as white<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Reading the story of these fictional women, Hall realized that her maternal grandfather had also passed as white.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Suddenly, aspects of my family life that were tinged with so much mystery and obfuscation, there was a reason for that,&#8221; Hall says.<\/p>\n<p>Hall&#8217;s mother, acclaimed opera singer <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Maria_Ewing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maria Ewing<\/a>, also passed as white, though not necessarily by her own volition. Instead, Hall says, Ewing tended to &#8220;be whatever people chose to see&#8221; \u2014 which sometimes meant being described as &#8220;exotic&#8221; by members of the opera community.<\/p>\n<p>Hall was so moved by Larsen&#8217;s novel that she drafted a script for a film adaptation \u2014 and then she put it away until she felt ready to do something with it. Now, 13 years later, her adaptation of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Passing_(film)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Passing<\/em><\/a> is available on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Netflix\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Netflix<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire interview <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/11\/30\/1059824073\/passing-rebecca-hall-film\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Passing&#8217; filmmaker Rebecca Hall shares the personal story behind her movie Fresh Air National Public Radio 2021-11-30 Terri Gross, Host Rebecca Hall (right) works on the set of Passing with actors Ruth Negga (left) and Tessa Thompson. Netflix Actor\/filmmaker Rebecca Hall had what she describes as a &#8220;real gasp&#8221; moment when she first read Nella [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2850,395,1245,13743,8,6462,10,20,25],"tags":[12552,8955,32418,2309,87,2833,32419,28879,827,32559,19672],"class_list":["post-62461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-audio","category-autobiography","category-biography","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-uk","category-usa","category-women","tag-fresh-air","tag-john-williams","tag-maria-ewing","tag-national-public-radio","tag-nella-larsen","tag-npr","tag-peter-hall","tag-rebecca-hall","tag-ruth-negga","tag-terri-gross","tag-tessa-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62462,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62461\/revisions\/62462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}