Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is still processing the past few months. Performing in one of the year’s most talked-about plays six days a week, sometimes twice a day, for three months straight has – unsurprisingly – taken its toll. From May to August, the 27-year-old was the Juliet to Tom Holland’s Romeo, making her critically-acclaimed West End debut in Jamie Lloyd’s remixed and revamped production of Shakespeare’s famous tale of star-crossed lovers. Getting tickets was hard – elbowing your way through the crowds hoping to catch a post-show glimpse of her Hollywood A-lister co-star outside London’s The Duke of York’s Theatre every night was even harder. For Francesca, though, one of the most difficult parts of the experience has been allowing herself to soak up and celebrate her role-of-a -lifetime achievement.
“I was so emotional when I came off stage [on the final night],” she says, sitting on a stool in an empty glam room, having just wrapped her GLAMOUR Women of the Year shoot as the recipient of this year’s Theatre Actor award. “I think my body was just storing so much to get through. After we did the final bows, it was just a release.”
It has been five days since she took that final bow, and her outfit isn’t too far from what she had worn on stage: black jeans, a white T-shirt and chunky Converse trainers, with her character’s denim jacket swapped out for an earthy, woven cream vest etched with geometric patterns. Her box braids are wrapped up in jumbo Bantu knots, revealing earrings made from cowrie shells, once used as currency and still seen as a symbol of prosperity in her ancestral homelands of Ghana and Nigeria. She’s cheerful – glowing, even – but as she lets out a nervous laugh in response to the question, “How are you dealing with it all?” (That is: the play, the headlines, the attention, both positive and negative), it seems as though Francesca’s still figuring the answer out for herself.
“The racist and misogynistic abuse directed at such a sweet soul has been too much to bear.”
-&-Francesca-Amewudah-Rivers-(Juliet).-Credit---Marc-Brenner.-1189.jpg)
“I’ve become aware that I’m not very good at celebrating myself, especially because this job has been so difficult…” Francesca trails off, skirting around the unpleasant context that has, in some ways, blighted what should have been a resounding highlight of her career. “Where there might have been more joy, there hasn’t. Now it’s done, I’m reflecting back like, ‘Oh, this is such a big achievement.’ And actually, yeah, it’s an honour to be recognised by GLAMOUR, it’s something to celebrate.”
Let’s get the unpleasant context out of the way. When Francesca’s casting as Juliet was first announced in April, the worst of society crawled out of the internet’s woodwork to repeat a pattern that’s become all too familiar for Black actors, particularly women. Similar to the backlash Halle Bailey received for her role in The Little Mermaid last year, these people took issue with the fact that Francesca isn’t white and – as a statement from the theatre company that staged the show, Jamie Lloyd Company, put it – directed “a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online” towards her.
“I suspected when I was cast that this would happen,” says Francesca, her face scrunching up as she chooses her next words. “But you can’t really prepare yourself for that level of exposure. It was really difficult. It happened as we were just about to start rehearsals, and it was ongoing throughout the show, so it affected my whole experience.
"I’m reminded of the Nina Simone quote: ‘The worst thing about that kind of prejudice… is that... it feeds you self-doubt,’” she continues. “It’s a constant battle of not feeling good enough, especially being in that room opposite Tom. Already, I was feeling incredibly insecure.”
It’s almost impossible to believe, having watched Francesca on stage. Her strikingly original take on Juliet crackled with wit, modernity and real-world authenticity, so much so that you almost forgot the lines she’s reading are more than 400 years old. Juliet in Francesca’s hands was cool, confident, the girl you want to be mates with at school; smart and slightly sarcastic, but vulnerable enough to let you in. Audiences may have been enticed by Tom Holland’s casting to fork out for tickets, but they left knowing that Francesca’s a star of equal measure.
And to think, acting was never really her thing in the first place. Growing up in the countryside near Brighton, Francesca has always found solace in music. The middle child between two brothers, she wouldn’t say she had a tough upbringing, but living in a mostly white area meant she had to learn how to deal with microaggressions early on. What’s more, her Ghanaian-Nigerian heritage was complicated by the fact her dad was fostered by a white family in the UK as a child, meaning she had three cultural identities to reckon with: her dad’s English upbringing, his family back in Ghana and her mum’s Nigerian roots. Music was one of the things that helped her connect the dots.
“In terms of my familial relationships, there’s not always been a language to speak about things, but there’s always been music,” says Francesca. At 10, she started playing the piano, inspired by her older brother. Then, she heard Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring for the first time and became fixated on learning the bassoon. “That taught me a lot, because the bassoon is the butt of all the jokes in the [school] orchestra,” she says, with an unmistakable wide grin. “I was just the weird one making fart sounds in the back.” The most formative instrument for Francesca, though, has been the djembe drum, which she learned to play with her uncles at a market in Ghana. “That always calms me and helps me connect to my inner tempo.”
So, when Francesca joined the National Youth Theatre at 15, it wasn’t to act but to help out in the music department. And when she founded a theatre society for students of colour during her second year at Oxford University, where she studied (guess what?) music, it was simply born from a desire to meet like-minded students.
“I wanted to be around creative people because that’s what I loved, but [as a person of colour] I just was not welcomed [into those spaces at Oxford] at all,” she says. Francesca set up the society with her friend Ria, and what started as a three-person Facebook group quickly grew into a crew of 100 people. But she still wasn’t interested in acting – not yet. Instead, she busied herself behind the scenes working on the group’s adaptation of Medea starring Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran (“That was the first thing that gave her confidence,” smiles Francesca proudly), composing a score that later went on to win the Evening Standard Future Theatre Award for Audio Design.
What, then, pushed her out from the orchestra pit and onto the stage? “Lockdown was a big humbler for everyone,” she explains. “And that happened the year after I graduated.” When the world shut down and she found herself back in her childhood bedroom in Brighton, she came across the National Youth Theatre’s free eight-month acting programme. “I was unemployed, chilling at home, so I thought, ‘Why not?’ I didn’t necessarily do the course to become an actor.” That’s when she discovered her affinity for Shakespeare. “We did Othello and, when speaking the text, I was immediately drawn to the musicality and the rhythm. I was like, ‘Oh, this makes sense.’”
Francesca finished the course in 2021, instantly found herself an agent and, within a year, was back on stage in Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2022 production of Macbeth. More theatre gigs soon followed, as well as a two-series stint as Blessing on Jack Whitehall’s BBC sitcom Bad Education. But Francesca was still unsure if she was on the right path. In fact, 2024 could have been the year that she gave up acting altogether.
“I got to the end of last year and I was like, ‘I actually don’t know if this is for me,’” she says. “I said to myself that this year was going to be the year of decisions. I was really craving a challenge, something that would be fulfilling, that would feel aligned.”
You could say it’s a coincidence that Shakespeare’s most famous play about fate was what convinced Francesca to stick it out; the playwright himself might have instead called it destiny. “I can’t really put the process of getting Romeo & Juliet into words, other than it felt spiritual,” says the – now self-affirmed – actor. “From the first audition [in January], there was something that happened in terms of my connection to the text that felt right.”
Francesca threw herself into the audition process, carving out a deeply considered and inherently feminist version of Juliet, despite the nagging voice that told her landing the role was a pipe dream. Three months later, Francesca had her final chemistry read with Tom. “I was told that Tom had the final sign-off on the casting of Juliet, so I didn’t know what to expect,” she says. Almost as soon as she arrived home at the London flat she shared with a friend, she received a phone call from Jamie Lloyd with news that she’d got the part.
Although rehearsals were tainted by the storm of racism that was brewing online, she’s grateful to have had the Marvel star by her side, always lifting the mood and keeping spirits up. “Tom is a ball of energy,” she says. “He’s very chatty, very positive, and he brought a good energy into the rehearsal room, which was awesome. I learned a lot just by spending time with someone whose world is so different from mine.”
For Francesca’s own character, though, she took inspiration from a world that was more familiar, one that’s grounded in reality and “truthful to what I know,” she says. “There are girls like me who experience Juliet’s reality – she’s been robbed of her agency. She’s very stoic in her advocacy of herself and her future, and she’s in love. It’s probably obsession and lust, and her naivety gets in the way, but these are very human things, especially existing in a world where the foundation is violence, turmoil and conflict. We see it everywhere – especially people of colour can relate.”
Francesca’s passion is palpable as she speaks – for the role, yes, but also for the layers of careful subtext she deliberately weaved into her performance. The irony is, of course, that the nuanced perspective she brought to Romeo & Juliet was precisely what those leading the vicious racist backlash didn’t want to see. It’s a difficult conversation to have at the best of times, but right now, in August 2024, following days of race riots across the UK, the topic feels particularly heavy.
“It is indicative of an industry-wide, society-wide and community-wide issue, as we can see now,” she says, glancing out the window. “People need to understand that this country is built off of the backs of immigrants. We didn’t come here. Britain came to us, pillaged and brought us back to do their work. I was born here, this is all I know. I’m just trying to make a life for myself. I’m trying to honour my own fantasy and give back through the arts.”
There is one silver lining to Francesca’s experience in the direct firing line of society’s pervasive racism, though. In response to the backlash to her casting, more than 800 Black actors signed an open letter in solidarity in April, including Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and Lolly Adefope. “It has taught me about the power of community,” she says, nodding, still reassured and empowered by the support. “Just seeing how the troops rallied was incredible.
“Without community there is no liberation, and I’d never really understood the power of that until this moment,” she continues, a fire and defiance now building in her voice. “I am also understanding that I am not alone. I’ve been here before, it’s festering in my blood, through other Black women who are theatre actors, who are in this industry, women of colour who have come up against a similar kind of noise.”
It’s a remarkable display of stoicism. One that, in 2024, shouldn’t be necessary for a young actor – or anyone, for that matter – to navigate. But Francesca won’t be defined by the backlash. Her performance, the rave reviews and the outpouring of love from her industry peers shout louder than faceless comments on the internet.
And if anyone for a single second thought this experience might be the straw that broke the camel’s back, the push that finally, after years of uncertainty, convinced Francesca to quit acting, they’d be sorely, embarrassingly and unequivocally mistaken. Yes, she’s still processing it all, taking a beat to catch her breath, nurture a social life that was eclipsed by a non-stop rehearsal schedule and, hopefully, recline on a sunlounger for a few weeks (“I have to see a beach, cocktails and the sun”). But 2024 will not be remembered as the year she gave up.
“The universe works in mysterious ways,” says Francesca, looking down into her palms as if reading her own future. “It’s very telling that, when I said, ‘This is the year [I make a decision about my career],’ I do a job like Romeo & Juliet, which has thrown everything upside down. There’s some unfinished business.” She looks up and nods to herself once again, underscoring her statement of intent to the world and, perhaps, herself. “I have more to give…
“But first, rest.”
