‘It became clear she couldn’t play the role’: Magic Mike 3 crew became concerned over Thandiwe Newton when she ‘ranting and raving’ on set and brought her pet rabbits to hotel for ’emotional support’ as star ‘quits role and splits with husband’
- Colleagues have become increasingly worried about the actress, who has been described as ‘acting strange’
- The British actress recently reverted to the African spelling of her name after previously going by ‘Thandie’
- Has been married to Ol Parker since 1998 and couple share three children, Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, 8
- Came under fire in February for ‘patronising’ interview in which she apologised to ‘darker-skinned actresses’
Thandiwe Newton’s apparent split from her husband Ol Parker comes just days after she was allegedly sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 after a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum – amid growing concerns about her behaviour.
Colleagues have become increasingly worried about the actress, 49, with sources describing her as ‘acting strange on set’, ‘always ranting and raving’, and being ‘very highly strung’.
There are now claims she is ‘heading to rehab’, according to Page Six, which reported a source as saying: ‘Her apparent breakdown caused so much disruption, it became clear she couldn’t play the role.
‘There is a lot going on in her personal life, she and her husband have separated. She seemed so stressed she even brought her two pet rabbits to her hotel for emotional support.’
In February, Thandiwe came under fire for a ‘cringey’ and ‘patronising’ interview to promote the movie God’s Country, during which she burst into tears as she apologised to ‘darker-skinned actresses’ for ‘taking their roles’.
In the film she plays a grieving black professor who confronts two white hunters on her property. But Thandiwe told Sky News she considered not taking the role due to concerns about ‘colourism’.
Beginning to well up, the actress said she ‘wanted to apologise every day to darker-skinned actresses’. She said: ‘It’s been very painful to have women who look like my mum feel like I’m not representing them. That I’m taking from them. Taking their men, taking their work, taking their truth. I didn’t mean to.’
Thandiwe, who reverted to the African spelling of her name after previously going by ‘Thandie’, has been married to Ol Parker since 1998. The couple share three children, Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight.
Split? Thandiwe Newton has allegedly separated from her husband Ol Parker and is likely headed to rehab according to a new report (pictured with Ol in 2018)
Thandiwe with Channing Tatum on the set of Mike 3 in London. They are reported to have had a fierce row about Will Smith’s notorious slap at the Oscars
EXCLUSIVE: Channing seen for the first time since his co-star Thandiwe exited Magic Mike 3 following claims of an ‘on-set bust-up’
Thandiwe has been described as being ‘very demanding’ and behaving like an ‘absolute diva’ on the set of Magic Mike 3, according to one crew member.
‘Everyone on set found her challenging to work with,’ they told The Sun. ‘She’s an absolute diva. I’ve watched her have a go at the first assistant director, her costume girl. She’s always ranting and raving about something.’
A spokesman claimed Thandiwe stepped away from the film – to be replaced by Selma Hayek – because she needed to ‘deal with family matters’.
But it has been reported her position became ‘untenable’ after she fell out with co-star Channing Tatum, 41, on set in Paddington, west London.
It was claimed they had an ‘unimaginably vicious’ argument over Will Smith’s behaviour at the Oscars, when he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage.
An unnamed crew member said: ‘They fell out over the debacle at the Oscars. I was on set… It was a tense exchange of words, but suddenly it escalated – Channing got into this car and he disappeared.’
However, this account of events has not been corroborated by anyone else.
An insider added that Thandiwe fired her UK agent of three decades as her US agent Gaby Morgerman flew in to try to help.
In February, Thandiwe came under fire for a ‘cringey’ and ‘patronising’ interview to promote the movie God’s Country, during which she burst into tears as she apologised to ‘darker-skinned actresses’ for ‘taking their roles’
Gaby is considered one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, representing stars including Matthew McConaughey and Minnie Driver over her thirty year career at powerhouse agency William Morris.
Thandiwe has reportedly fired her UK team at London based agency Independent Talent Group in recent weeks.
The insider said of her next steps: ‘Thandiwe’s team wants her to go to rehab for mental health support.
She was supposed to leave immediately for a facility, they tried for a Malibu rehab, but they couldn’t take her. Arrangements are now being made to go to a facility in Arizona, if she agrees to go.’
MailOnline has contacted representatives of Thandiwe Newton for comment.
Thandiwe exited Magic Mike’s Last Dance after 11 days of filming with Channing due to a ‘family matter’.
A Warner Bros. Pictures spokesperson said: ‘Thandiwe Newton has made the difficult decision to step away from the production of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Magic Mike’s Last Dance to deal with family matters.’
The statement came after insiders told The Sun that Thandiwe is planning on suing studio chiefs at Warner Bros over the incident.
The argument reportedly took place on location in Paddington.
A source said: ‘Channing Tatum is the producer and number one on set. Thandiwe Newton is the number two star. But 11 days into shooting and it’s all over.
‘They fell out over the debacle at The Oscars. I was on set. I watched her and watched him. They were in and out of the house where we were filming having this confrontation.
‘After the row he just went, ‘I am not working with her anymore’. Him being a producer, it’s his movie, so she’s off the movie.’
Quit: The actress, 49, recently denied claims she was sacked from her leading role in Magic Mike 3 over a heated argument with co-star Channing Tatum
Family: The couple share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019)
The source added that all scenes filmed with Thandiwe will now have to be reshot with Salma while the film’s director Steven Soderbergh reportedly didn’t take a side in the argument.
A spokesperson for Thandiwe told MailOnline: ‘This report is completely inaccurate.’
The original Magic Mike movie premiered in 2012 and was loosely based on Channing’s experience working as a stripper in Tampa, Florida. A sequel followed in 2015.
Channing confirmed that he would reprise his role for Magic Mike’s Last Dance in November on 2021.
The film is set to premiere exclusively on HBO Max. The release date has yet to be announced.
In a recent interview with PEOPLE he spoke about the importance on the movie having a lead female character.
‘I want to have an equal, if not even more centralized female character for Mike to really play off of and almost to… I don’t want to say, [to have her] take the baton, but really let the movie be about a female’s experience and not Mike’s experience, because it has been so much about Mike and the guys’ experiences.
‘These movies are very, very female-forward. At least that is our intention.’
Report: It was claimed the alleged argument between Thandiwe and Channing was ‘unimaginably vicious’ (Channing pictured centre in Magic Mike, 2012)
Recast: Thandiwe’s role in the film will now reportedly be played by Salma Hayek (pictured in February)
Born in London, Newton grew up in Penzance, Cornwall, where her parents – her dad is white British, her mother black, from Zimbabwe – sent her to a Catholic school. She said of her school years: ‘I was aware that I didn’t fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns’.
She went on to study at Cambridge University, where she read anthropology.
She has said she fell in love with her husband Ol at first sight, dumping her boyfriend at the time to be with him when they met in 1997. At the time Ol was a screenwriter and had penned In Your Dreams, which featured the actress.
‘It’s very unusual to have writers around on set because directors don’t want them there. But they love having Ol around. He was on set every day and I fell madly in love with him,’ she told InStyle Magazine.
‘I’d never experienced that before. Up until then, my relationships had always been more based on people wanting to be with me. When I met Ol, I was dating a really sweet, lovely man and I had to leave him straight away, even though I wasn’t even going out with Ol’.
‘But as soon as I met Ol, it kind of cut off any other blood vessels to anywhere else. We got married about two years later.’
She went on to marry Ol in 1998, with the actress gushing in a 2016 interview about their home life with their three children that the director is ‘Soooo calm.’
‘And we laugh, because I take the p**s out of him,’ she added at the time. ‘You know: shoulder-shrugging: ‘It’s OK, babe.’ And he takes the p**s out of my … What would you describe it as? Highly emotional. As I’m thinking, the words will come. I don’t stop and think.’
In a 2019 interview Thandiwe revealed she lost acting roles because she spoke out about sexual abuse in the past.
When she was 16 she was groomed by director John Duigan, who was 39 years old at the time.
The violations by Duigan lasted five years, two of those years were termed a ‘relationship’ after he sought Newton’s parents’ blessing for her to be his girlfriend when she was 18, while asking her to hide their previous intimacy which began when she was just 16.
Two years after meeting Duigan, at the age of 18, another director told the actress to intimately touch herself during an audition. Newton obliged, as there was also a female casting director present.
Love: The actress has said she fell in love with her husband Ol at first sight, dumping her boyfriend at the time to be with him when they met in 1997(pictured in 2019)
But years later, she discovered the unnamed man had kept her tape and was playing it at poker games for other Hollywood elite.
Following the violating discovery, Thandiwe began to fight the abuse and call it out – an act that cost the actress many jobs.
‘I was very aware of the climate of sexual abuse that was going on around me, so I became the person you didn’t want to hire because I would call it out,’ she told Marie Claire in 2019.
‘In retrospect, I can see many instances where not only would I not be employed, but other actors and actresses would not necessarily want to be associated with me.’
‘Probably the worst thing about having your innocence rocked is what stays with you. The sense of worthlessness, shame—these things are very hard to move on from. But you can,’ she told the outlet.
The star said she terminated a contract with a publicist who begged her to stop talking about being sexually abused because it was ‘not good for your reputation’.
In 1996 Thandiwe sought help after suffering from an eating disorder, which she explained stemmed from her previous sexual abuse.
‘I was lying in bed, so thin, and my heart was beating against my ribcage so hard that I could see it, and my friend Jessica called. I said ‘Jessica, I’m worried I’m going to die.’ And that was it. I suddenly realised there was something very, very dangerous and dark within. She said, ‘You’ve got to go and talk to somebody” she told Vogue in 2021.
Family: She went on to marry Ol in 1998, with the actress gushing in a 2016 interview about their homelife with their three children that the director is ‘Soooo calm’ (pictured with two of their children Ripley and Nico in 2016)
The star has previously been open about subscribing to the The Hoffman Process, a form of therapy also embraced by the likes of Katy Perry and Sienna Miller. Retreats and courses help attendees ‘unlearn’ negative behaviors and thereby begin a journey of ‘self-understanding’.
Justin Bieber described his experience of The Hoffman Process in a 2019 Vogue interview, explaining: ‘You sit on a mat, you put a pillow down, and you beat your past out of it. I beat the fact that my mom was depressed a lot of my life and my dad has anger issues. Stuff that they passed on that I’m kind of mad they gave me’.
In a revealing interview in 2021, Thandiwe revealed that she was becoming disillusioned with acting, telling Vogue UK: ‘I find that acting takes more and more away from me, because I’m more connected to myself than I’ve ever been, whereas before I was delighted to get an excuse to go off to another personality.’
‘I couldn’t wait to get away from myself, truly, I had such low self-esteem. Acting was where I felt whole.’
The actress was previously credited as Thandie Newton before she reverted to the original spelling of her name three decades after it was misspelled in her first film.
She revealed that Thandie was a careless misspelling in the credits of her first movie – the 1991 Australian film Flirting, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor – and it has stuck ever since.
‘That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine,’ she told British Vogue in April 2021.
From a Cornwall upbringing to a Hollywood star: Thandiwe’s 30-year career and 24-year marriage
Born in London, Newton grew up in Penzance, Cornwall, where her parents – her dad is white British, her mother black, from Zimbabwe – sent her to a Catholic school.
She said of her school years: ‘I was aware that I didn’t fit. I was the black, atheist kid in the all-white, Catholic school run by nuns’.
She went on to study at Cambridge University, where she read anthropology.
Her screen career began as a teenager with the 1991 film Flirting marking her debut.
At just 22 she appeared in major movie Interview With A Vampire, opposite To Cruise and Brad Pitt. She later reunited with Cruise in the 2000 movie Mission Impossible 2.
Newton’s early acting years were marked with sexual abuse. When she was 16 she was groomed by director John Duigan, who was 39 years old at the time.
The violations by Duigan lasted five years, two of those years were termed a ‘relationship’ after he sought Newton’s parents’ blessing for her to be his girlfriend when she was 18.
Two years after meeting Duigan, at the age of 18, another director told the actress to intimately touch herself during an audition. Newton obliged, as there was also a female casting director present.
But years later, she discovered the unnamed man had kept her tape and was playing it at poker games for other Hollywood elite.
Following the violating discovery, Thandiwe began to fight the abuse and call it out – an act that cost the actress many jobs.
Alongside her movie career she’s had long-running roles in the likes of ER and her lead part in Westworld.
She met husband Ol in 1997 and said it was love at first sight.
At the time Ol was a screenwriter and had penned In Your Dreams, which featured the actress.
‘He was on set every day and I fell madly in love with him,’ she told InStyle Magazine.
‘When I met Ol, I was dating a really sweet, lovely man and I had to leave him straight away, even though I wasn’t even going out with Ol’.
‘But as soon as I met Ol, it kind of cut off any other blood vessels to anywhere else.’
She went on to marry Ol in 1998. The couple share three children: Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight.
The actress was previously credited as Thandie Newton before she reverted to the original spelling of her name three decades after it was misspelled in her first film.
She revealed that Thandie was a careless misspelling in the credits of her first movie – the 1991 Australian film Flirting, co-starring Nicole Kidman and Noah Taylor – and it has stuck ever since.
‘That’s my name. It’s always been my name. I’m taking back what’s mine,’ she told British Vogue in April 2021.
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