Australian actor Charmaine Bingwa says she was ‘forced’ to work overseas due to racism

Charmaine Bingwa is making a name for herself in Hollywood, alongside Will Smith. But she reveals why she never would have made it on screen at home.

Zimbabwean-Australian actor Charmaine Bingwa landed a huge role in Hollywood. Picture: AFP

Actor Charmaine Bingwa has revealed she was forced to leave Australia to save her career “because you wouldn’t see people like me reflected on screen in Australia.”

The 37-year-old of is garnering critical acclaim for her role as Will Smith’s deeply anguished wife, Dodienne in slavery epic Emancipation. It’s a role she admits to taking to highlight the racism that is still experienced around the world.

“Racism is always slow moving, it’s hard and slow to change,” the Perth-born actor of Zimbabwean heritage told News Corp Australia.

Charmaine Bingwa won the Heath Ledger Scholarship in 2018. Picture: AFP

“I think in Australia, we’re definitely making strides towards it. I’m glad it is starting. I think we’re at the beginning, for people, indigenous people in Australia,” she said.

“You know, I experienced overt racism, but I think it’s more the subtle, institutionalised stuff we’re privy to in Australia.

“Just even … the fact that I moved to America to have a better chance of having an acting career because at the time, I know what it’s since changed, but at the time you wouldn’t see people like me reflected on screen in Australia.”

Bingwa is making a name for herself in the USA, starring alongside Will Smith. Picture: Getty Images

Bingwa was the first woman of colour to win the Heath Ledger Scholarship for emerging artists in 2018.

The openly gay star, who says America is “home” now for her, first made a splash in The Good Fight in 2017. A year later she received the Heath Ledger Scholarship for emerging Australian actors and claimed her moment on stage to credit the late actor in inspiring her to come out as gay.

Referring to the late Heath’s ground breaking performance in Brokeback Mountain, she said at the time: ‘It inspired me to live my life to the fullest and I came out as openly gay. That’s the power of performance.”

The script for the Apple TV+ movie Emancipation brought Bingwa to tears. Picture: Supplied

Both Bingwa and Smith are being praised for the roles in Antoine Fuqua’s Emancipation, with Bingwa admitting she was brought to tears when reading the script.

“When I read the script, it wasn’t written the typical slave movie way, like there’s almost an element of adventure in the sense of the journey to get back home,” she said.

“I was speaking with Antoine last night and I was saying what I loved about this script, it’s a film where it shows that black people save themselves.

“Sometimes the narrative of the white saviour or the colonial saviour comes through and I think it’s really important for our people to remember that resilience is in our blood and in our DNA, and I think there’s always a place for these stories,” she said.

The talented actor now calls the United States home. Picture: AFP

“You can’t have your present without your past or, or if you ignore it, you’re going to remain uninformed.

“We’re in divisive times, it’s also very important for us to honour the past. Otherwise, all those people who suffered … it’s for nothing.”

“I read a lot of enslaved narratives and I mean, each one broke my heart, I read about a woman who was beaten so badly she couldn’t open her jaw for the rest of her life and she had to eat liquid foods.

“I cried when I read the script, I just tried so hard to make the character come from a place of truth.”

Emancipation is now streaming on Apple TV+.