Thuso Mbedu Wins Another International Award – Mzansi Leaks

Thusob Mbedu’s stardom continues to rise! The KwaZulu-Natal born actress won an award for her role on The Woman King.

Thuso took home the award for Outstanding Breakthrough Actress at the 23rd Annual Black Reel Awards this week. The Woman Kind won a total of 6 awards. The lead actress Viola Davis, won the Best Actress award.

The action packed, African inspired film was shot in Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

Outstanding Breakthrough Actress Winner: @ThusoMbedu @TheWomanKingsa #blackreelawards #bolts23 pic.twitter.com/o9dZwq5sez

— Black Reel Awards (@BlackReelAwards) February 7, 2023

Mbedu portrayed the character Nawi and for that outstanding performance, she managed to bad numerous accolades. These include an Independent Spirit Award, and a Gotham Award.

She received her break out role in Hollywood for her role on The Underground Railroad. She won a Hollywood Critics Award, an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Performance in a New Scripted Series as well as an Outstanding Performance in a New Series at the Gotham Awards.

After her Woman Kind role, she earned a spot on the top 10 best actors of 2022 by the New York Times.

In the article, the authors Wesley Morris and A.O Scott describe Mbedu as a force to be reckoned with. “All I knew about this movie, before I got there, was that Viola Davis was in it… I was less prepared for the discovery that she wasn’t the only actor with the gusto to singe my eyebrows,” writes Wesley Morris.

“The movie’s comedy — some of it, anyway — comes from watching Davis subdue her awe at Nawi’s relentlessness. It must have been some of the hardest acting this great actor has had to do, because Mbedu is awesome. The part needs stamina: There’s lots of running, jumping, ducking, impaling. But Mbedu ensures that every thwack, knock and stabbing packs an emotional wallop. She doesn’t appear to be acting the battles.

“She’s performing the quest Nawi has embarked on — for both belonging and independence, guidance and trust,” continues the author.

Wesley also tipped his hat to Mbedu for her Underground Railroad role.

“This wasn’t the first time I’d seen Mbedu. She played an enslaved person on the run in “The Underground Railroad,” Barry Jenkins’s neglected 10-part masterpiece from last year, and I didn’t see a more imaginatively grueling feat of acting.”

“The Woman King” is a spa day by comparison. Mbedu gets to be teary, tough, terse and sometimes, in her steeliness, a riot. (There’s a climactic moment when she has to do battle in some frilly colonial pantaloons, and she manages to make her face as hard as the fabric is delicate.) What an audience responds to is her urgency, her volcanic desire to matter, to shine. Rarely do we moviegoers get to witness someone we barely knew just minutes ago announce themselves as someone we’re desperate to see more of, but here we are: More, please,” concluded Morris.