The Real Surprise of ‘Passing’: A Focus on Black Women’s Inner Lives
The New York Times
By making the lesbian attraction between the main characters more explicit, the drama moves beyond mainstream Hollywood’s white gaze.
Midway through the new drama “Passing,” Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), the light-brown-skinned, upper-middle-class protagonist, offers a unique insight into her psyche when she says to her friend Hugh, “We’re, all of us, passing for something or the other,” and adds, “Aren’t we?”
Until now, Irene has successfully maintained her cover as both a respectable wife and proud African American woman. But when Hugh (Bill Camp) challenges her by asking why she does not pass for white like her biracial childhood friend, Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), her response is a revelation, startling me almost as much as it did him.
“Who’s to say I am not?” she snaps back.
