Noma Dumezweni Speaks Out on Playing Hermione

In a new interview, Noma Dumezweni speaks out on the abuse she received, and her joy at playing Hermione in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

More from Harry Potter

When it was announced back in December that Shakespearean actress Noma Dumezweni would be taking on the role of Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the reaction on Twitter was swift and brutal. There were some for whom the choice validated a lifetime of racebent imaginings of the brightest witch of her age.

But for many white fans, the discovery that the slowly changing cultural norms that have been quietly pushing at the deeply embedded supremacist notion in western culture of “white=default” had arrived at their doorstep was a shock they were not emotionally prepared to handle.

J.K. Rowling, and nearly all the cast who had ever inhabited the Potterverse responded admirably to the onslaught that resulted, as many lashed out, rather than consider why they were so distressed by the casting. But it was Dumezweni who was hit hardest. Speaking to The Sunday Times (sadly paywalled!), she admitted the abuse was difficult.

"“I am a black woman who has been given this character called Hermione to play on the stage. But actually, we’ve all grown up with the books, with Emma Watson playing her in the films. Imagery is so strong…. My name is being tagged into stuff that’s not nice, that’s not nice. It’s ignorance. It drives me crazy. It’s a limitation.”"

It’s a limitation that Dumezweni admits she thought would keep her from the role. She first became involved with the production in the very early stages, due to her friendship and working relationship, with director John Tiffany. As with many new works, scenes and sequences from the show were workshopped, with actors stepping in and reading and acting out the parts to see how they played, before returning to the editing process. Dumezweni spent the workshop process playing the role of Hermione from the beginning. But she thought it would never go to her in the end. When it did: “I’d been thinking, it’s not gonna happen. […] It was a beautiful surprise, a lovely surprise.”

When she talks about the idea of a black actor not being considered for roles that are deemed white, she knows what she’s talking about, because she herself had internalized those same ideas for years. “Ten years ago, I may have looked at it with negativity and said, ‘well, I won’t get that part.’ This is a bonus. My colour is a bonus, and I am so blessed with that.”

Via mariannewiththesteadyhands.tumblr.com

"We all want to see ourselves somewhere. You create negativity if you’ve got four people in a room and only three can see themselves represented in pictures and drawings and this and that. And the other person is going, where am I? The other three stop seeing that person because they’re not represented."

And as for what makes her Hermione, she admits she’s not sure what the director Tiffany and writer Jack Thorne saw, but to her, every woman has a bit of Hermione inside.

"I don’t know what traits they saw in me, but reading what Jack and John had written, it’s that bossy girl at school who’s trying to make things right in the world. Hermione is fascinating because every girl, every walk of life, every race, gets it – how do we go into the world? I want to go into the world the way she does. Am I brave enough to go through what she does?"

That Hermione is not out there in the world in a way that lets women of color see that they too are Hermione is one of the most beautiful things about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I am only sorry I am not in London to see Dumezweni’s performance myself, and I hope she stays in the role when it travels to Broadway.

Home/Harry Potter