THANDIE NEWTON refused to join in boozy celebrations to toast the success of her 1995 movie JEFFERSON IN PARIS – because she was busy revising for her university exams.

The actress studied Archaeology and Anthropology at the U.K.’s prestigious Cambridge University when one of her early films debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Newton shunned the bar with her castmates at the annual movie event – choosing instead to revise for her degree.

She says, “I was studying for my finals at Cambridge during the Cannes Film Festival. I went to a party on the beach for the film I was in, Jefferson In Paris, but I didn’t get drunk because I knew I had to revise.

“I wasn’t going to the college bar and having fun, so I probably ended up working more than most people. I carried on making films while I was at Cambridge. I don’t regret it because if I hadn’t, maybe I wouldn’t be an actress.”

From the Daily Star

The film has quite a lot of action. What sort of things did you have to do?
I spent a lot of time incredibly wet (laughs). Absolutely soaking wet through – trousers, sweater, my shoes, everything. It was miserable and I’m such a little girl about that sort of thing. I didn’t complain about it, but inside I was thinking ‘oh no, not again’! There’s one sequence where the waves are coming in and I have to scoop up this little girl and save her, which is all great, but inside I was thinking ****** hell! Can this please just be it’! And the little girl was having a great time. In between scenes I’d wrap myself in a towel and she was swimming around and loving it.

What sort of preparation did you do for the film?
I just read the script and made sure my accent was in good shape, because really, no matter who I was playing, the story is about a world in disarray. When something like this happens – and hopefully it never will – when everything is about to be destroyed, you can’t hold on to any idea of who you are or worry about your worldly goods, because it’s all going to be swept away. It’s very fundamental and you end up as a human being – skin, flesh and bones – fighting for your life. So what research can you do to play a character caught up in that? It was more about asking yourself, ‘hell, what would I do in that position?’

Did you pause for thought when you first heard about the Mayan prophecies?
I was a bit nervous to be honest when I first heard about the Mayan prophecies. I’m a bit of an old hippie and I feel like anything’s possible at any time. Reality can be shocking enough and things happen all the time. I think the film is about appreciating the moment and the challenges we face – like, for instance the economic crisis we’ve been going through – hopefully it will make us appreciate the simple things and the value of relationships and the value of the people that we love.

You went straight from filming W, where you played former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, into filming 2012. Did you ever have any feedback from Condoleezza Rice after W came out?
No. But she’s joined my agency, I hear. William Morris.

So who had the best Oval Office? Was it on W or was it on the set for 2012?
That was so funny. I literally finished my last scene in W, which was with Josh Brolin in the Oval Office, and two weeks later I was on a different set for 2012, in Vancouver, on another set for the Oval Office, playing a president’s daughter.

How do you decide what roles to take?
I wouldn’t ever just want to do one kind of thing. When I was starting out, if I did a movie about say, slavery (Jefferson in Paris), I’d then get sent every slavery script going. But that doesn’t happen so much anymore. The way I work and when I work is actually more to do with being a mum than ‘what do I want to do next’? If I’ve worked on a big film, I don’t then want to go and do another big film because of the kids and school. It’s a bit boring, but that determines the job more than anything else.

Do you like watching your own movies?
If they’re good. (laughs)

And so which ones are good?
Oh, I’m not going to answer that (laughs). I mean, there are lots that I really, really like, there are some I feel didn’t work in ways that I’d hoped, but then, you never really know, you have very little control as an actor really. But there are definitely some that I prefer to others – but there are some films I like more than others in general, just not ones I’ve been in.

2012 is out November 12.

From Alive Sydney

She’s the Cambridge graduate who studied for her finals during the Cannes Film Festival, believes she was exploited on her first film and has no time for Gordon Ramsay

Thandie Newton is small boned, beautiful and looks as fragile as a bird of paradise but she’s certainly no pushover. For her role in disaster blockbuster 2012 – whose central premise is that the end of the world starts on December 21 2012, as predicted by the ancient Mayan civilisation – she had to spend days submerged in a water tank ‘the size of a swimming pool’, filming scenes of floods that follow devastating earthquakes when the planet’s tectonic plates shift.

She grew up in Penzance, the daughter of a Zimbabwean mother and an English father, and started acting at 16, keeping her career on track while attending Downing College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a 2.1 in anthropology. She won a Bafta for best supporting actress in Crash and has also starred in Mission: Impossible II, The Pursuit of Happyness and RocknRolla. She has two daughters, Ripley, nine, and Nico, five, is married to director Ol Parker and turns 37 on Friday.

I was studying for my finals at Cambridge during the Cannes Film Festival.

I went to a party on the beach for the film I was in, Jefferson In Paris, but I didn’t get drunk because I knew I had to revise. I wasn’t going to the college bar and having fun, so I probably ended up working more than most people. I carried on making films while I was at Cambridge. I don’t regret it because if I hadn’t, maybe I wouldn’t be an actress.

They paid me just $5,000 for my first film, Flirting.

It should have been a lot more, but how was I to know? It was major exploitation. These days you get a first-class ticket if you are working on a movie but I flew economy all the way to Australia and back. I was hanging out after doing my GCSEs and it came totally out of the blue. After it finished I went back to school.

The Mayan calendar finishes its 13th cycle in 2012 and after that there’s nothing.

I was a bit nervous when I heard about the Mayan prophecies for my new film. And then someone reassured me that it’s all been disproved. I think 2012 is about appreciating the moment and the simple things, the value of relationships and the value of the people that we love. It’s also a great adventure.

Guy Ritchie is an acquired taste.

But I like him. He is a no-messing-about kind of director (she worked with him on RocknRolla). I love how straight-talking he is and sometimes it’s confrontational, but what he does say is on the money every time.

I am terrible for swearing.

There’s always a lot of swearing on film sets and I’m so bad that my kids say ‘Stop it Mummy!’ They’re always telling me off. I love hanging out with the boys on a set – it’s almost more relaxing than hanging out with the girls.

I’ve experienced racism in Hollywood but not as conflict or in a threatening way, just the ignorance of people.

There was one time I went for a meeting for this big movie and I was up for a character who wasn’t written as black. The character was a college graduate and the studio head, a woman, said, ‘How can we make this role more black if we are going to have you in the film?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think as it’s written it’s fine…’ And she said, ‘Yeah, I know, but she is a graduate, she has been to university.’ So I said, ‘I’ve been to university.’ And then it was, ‘Yeah, but you’re different.’ I wasn’t offended. It’s just nonsense. But no, I didn’t do the film.

My attitude towards Hollywood can be summed up as ‘smash and grab’.

I go into a meeting with a director as an equal, thinking that what I have to offer is of great value. It also makes me appreciate how much I have changed. Twenty years ago I wasn’t so well-equipped to deal with Hollywood.

I thought Oliver Stone was crazy when he told me he wanted me to play Condoleezza Rice.

I remember preparing for the film (W) and the make-up artist saying, ‘We’re going for feel-alike rather than lookalike.’ But I wanted to look like her. So I had false teeth and a completely different hairstyle. I hear she’s joined my agency, William Morris, so maybe I’ll run into her in the corridor – that would be funny.

I was shocked when two BNP candidates were elected to the European parliament.

We need an Obama in Britain. You want someone to rise up from somewhere and take everyone by surprise. I think the BNP picking up votes stems from disenchantment.

I was the only black girl and only non-Catholic at St Mary’s Roman Catholic School in Penzance.

Whenever they were all at prayers I had free time. I got into a lot of trouble – they made me sit on a baby chair. It was supposed to shame you, but it didn’t break me. There was a footballing nun who used to play on the pitch with the boys. She’d even wear a wimple.

I hate it when Gordon Ramsay abuses people on TV.

Those people come from goodness knows where to be in the kitchen with him and he’s swearing at them, shaming them, mocking them, abusing them, and they just take it. That’s got nothing to do with being a chef.

I can’t stand reality TV.

Apparently, some people even watch Big Brother when all of the contestants are asleep in the house. Can you believe that?

You go into newsagents now and the top shelf is all the way down to the bottom.

My kids are getting comics next to the cover of a men’s mag with a girl who’s topless. The boundaries have gone.

From the Daily Mail

The world will end. It’s going to happen in 2012, which is actually November 13, 2009. So good luck trying to set your calendars or bothering to live each day to the fullest.

Here’s interviews from the quality cast (Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Thandie Newton) … even though the film will most likely choose special effects over substance every chance it gets. And no, it doesn’t always have to be that way, as Star Trek proved.

I have added photos of Thandie from all the public events that she attended this past month… She was seen in both New York and London – its great to see her out more often!

You can see the new photos by clicking on the thumbnails below!