1996, Marianne Jean-Baptiste made history: she became the first black British actor to be nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Hortense in Secrets and lives. But what happened next was frankly unprecedented.
Seemingly shunned by the British film industry, her efforts and talents were overlooked or blatantly ignored by the historically white gatekeepers. What would normally be an intense period of pitches, job offers and auditions turned into a dry period as far as British film is concerned. Instead of waiting patiently for the call worthy of her talents, the South East Londoner raised her stick and emigrated to the land of the free, and more specifically the “City of Angels”, the center of the American film industry.
A black rights bastion, and a fearless outspoken advocate for equality and greater opportunity for people of color in film, Baptiste is a walking, talking case study of what happens when perseverance, self-confidence and courage meet. With the Jeymes Samuel directed Clarence’s book currently in the making for The without a trace star and scheduled for a September 2023 release, let’s take a look at the actor’s best film and television performances.
5 Broadchurch
Broadchurch ran for three seasons and won multiple BAFTAs. The series stars Academy Award winner Olivia Colman, two former Doctor Who actors David Tennant and Jodie Whittaker, as well as Charlotte Rampling, and of course Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
Baptiste appears as Queen’s Counsel attorney, Sharon Bishop, acting on behalf of the accused murderer, Joe (Matthew Gravelle). Although with a support function, the 28 days actress shows herself emphatically convincingly in each of the season’s eight episodes as the sharp-tongued, carefully prepared legal protégé, as she takes on her former tutor.
4 The sea beast
Competing with the seasoned, time-tested formulas of Disney Pixar, Dreamworks, Sony and the like was always going to be an uphill task for streaming services like Prime and Netflix, whose back catalogs when it came to creating new and original animated content was sparse compared to the monopoly of Disney Pixar. 2022 was a turning point year for Netflix, which raised the bar in high quality animated outputof Pinocchio by Guillermo Del Toro, Wendell & WildAnd The sea beast all courtship critics.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste starred, albeit only vocally in the latter, as Sarah Sharpe, the first mate and one of the film’s female leads. The visually exuberant story follows Sarah, protagonist Jacob Holland (Karl Urban) and young girl Maisie (Zaris-Angel Hator) as they ply their trade as hunters of sea monsters. The trio venture into uncharted waters, proving that the monsters aren’t actually the bad guys. A journey of guardianship, friendship, self-discovery, preservation and learning to respect what one initially feared. Baptiste is a refreshing and disarming presence in this family-friendly picture.
3 In dust
One year after Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom wire came another thread-based picture in the form of writer-director, Peter Strickland’s In dust, though Inside the Seams was less of a chilling phantom malaise, and more of a murderous, needle-sticking horror-encounter-comedy tale. The film has its signature horror rooted in consumerism and follows the story of a cursed red dress that wreaks havoc in the lives of all its owners. Baptiste is Mother Sheila, whose depressingly mediocre existence is rocked by the evil curse that comes with the dress in her possession as it threatens to derail her life.
2 Without a trace
Between 2002 and 2009, the Robocop actress was a centerpiece of the CBS crime drama Without a trace. Written and produced by Hank Steinberg, the procedural drama focuses on an FBI unit dealing with missing persons.
For seven seasons, Baptiste plays Viv Johnson, a senior field agent and key orchestrator in the unit’s investigation into the whereabouts of missing persons. As a special agent, the actress would go on to be nominated for numerous awards, including the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for three consecutive years, as well as a Screen Actors Guild Award.
1 Secrets and lies
In Mike Leigh’s beautifully gripping feature, Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivers a career-defining performance as a young black woman searching for answers. The British comedy drama Secrets and lies delves into the life of optometrist Hortense, who decides to dig up her own biological family tree and starts unearthing terrifying revelations.
After Hortense’s adoptive parents pass away, her hunger to locate her birth giver increases, motivated by the need for closure, a burning desire for love, and the rekindling of a relationship with a lost parent. The Palme d’Or winning character study is a colorful portrait of a typically prosaic and fragmented British family, brought to life in part by Hortense’s level-headedness. This improvisation-based, critically acclaimed feature film is a delight and undeniably Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s finest work to date.