Bafta-winning actress and new mum Wunmi Mosaku tells Nick Curtis about her sense of belonging - whether to Manchester, Nigeria or Tinseltown

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Wunmi Mosaku isn’t 全く sold on the American life. ‘I get homesick,’ says the British Nigerian actress, 37, her Mancunian accent （犯罪の）一味ing out loud and proud over Zoom, even as 有望な California 日光 （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域s in through her open window. 

‘I 行方不明になる my friends and family. But I get a cup of tea and a Rich Tea 薄焼きパン／素焼陶器 and I call someone from home and it helps.’

Mosaku has been based in Los Angeles since 2018, filming HBO’s mashup of horror and race relations Lovecraft Country and playing a time-travelling 警官，（賞などを）獲得する と一緒に Tom Hiddleston in Marvel’s Loki.

Thank goodness, then, for 乗客, the ITV dark comedy thriller 始める，決める in the fictional Chadder Vale ? Twin 頂点（に達する）s 会合，会うs the 頂点（に達する） 地区 ? which gave her a chance to 交換（する） Beverly Hills’ blue skies and palm trees for Manchester’s A-roads and a sun that 始める，決めるs at 3pm over Christmas.  ‘I stayed just 負かす／撃墜する the road from my mum and my sister, which was 広大な／多数の／重要な,’ she says. The tea was on tap.

いっそう少なく cuddly is the 陰謀（を企てる） of 乗客. ‘It’s an unnatural thriller about belonging,’ says Mosaku of this tale of 地元の girls going 行方不明の in snow-covered forests, the return of a violent 犯罪の to a small community and things that go bump in the night. 

 She plays a London 探偵，刑事 marooned in a small town, caring for her ex’s mother and working off her 失望／欲求不満s by sparring at the 地元の gym with a ポーランドの（人） mechanic. 

Mosaku herself loves ボクシング: ‘I’d go four times a week to Miguel’s in Brixton when I lived in London.’ When she told this to showrunner Andrew Buchan (the grieving father 示す Latimer in Broadchurch and Matt Hancock in This England), after the two met in 2017 to talk about her 令状ing, he said, ‘Wow, I feel I’ve been 令状ing something for you without realising it.’

Mosaku was born in Zaria, Nigeria , to parents who were professors ? her father in architecture and her mother in chemistry ? and moved to Manchester 老年の one. But her parents’ degrees were not recognised in the UK, so her mother 始める，決める up a 商売／仕事 and her father went 支援する to Nigeria when the marriage ended. 

Mosaku 最初 struggled at school and her parents were advised not to speak Yoruba at home. ‘It was because of… I’m gonna say 人種差別主義. All my Nigerian friends had the same thing, but 非，不，無 of my French or Lithuanian friends were told to stop speaking their mother tongue at home. It happened when I was five: I was 診断するd as dyslexic at 18.’

Reading remains ‘a chore’ to this day, yet Mosaku was proficient at maths and chemistry and 熟視する／熟考するd an academic career. She loved 事実上の／代理 and singing, too: she was in Manchester Girls Choir for 11 years and once dreamed of 存在 an オペラ singer after a school visit to see Madame バタフライ. 

Then she saw the film Annie, and discovered its male lead, Albert Finney, had trained at Rada. She 適用するd ? and got in. Good thing, too: she says her family could only afford to 支払う／賃金 for one audition.

Ten years after 卒業生（する）ing, she won a Bafta in 2017 playing the mother of the 殺人d Damilola Taylor in BBC 演劇 Damilola, Our Loved Boy. But she’s said her 高さ (5ft 8?in), dark 肌 and African features also typecast her in 厳格な，質素な, 権威主義者 役割s. ‘I got a lot of police officers,’ she says, drily.

Then her life changed: she met an LA-born talent スパイ／執行官 (whom she prefers not to 指名する), fell in love and relocated. They’ve just had their first child, a baby girl. Last year’s four-month 下落する-Aftra strike gave Mosaku a chance to take maternity leave ? her first real hiatus since her 審査する debut in The Women of Troy in 2006 ? and 狙撃 乗客 around Manchester meant her family could 会合，会う her daughter, who hasn’t yet been to Nigeria. 

‘But she will. It’s part of me so it will be part of her.

It’s very important to me that people know where they’re from, who they’re from. The people who have 影響（力）d my life will always be spoken about: my grandmas, my parents, my cousins? these people all 形態／調整d me, so they also 間接に 形態／調整 her. And as an African American, which she is, she will know that history, the people she is from and what they’ve 達成するd.’

In LA, Mosaku is bothered by the need to 運動 everywhere. Since moving there she’s also been 支援する to the UK to shoot Luther, the fantasy TV series 寺 with 示す Strong and the hard-hitting 難民 horror His House, and says, ‘It’s much easier to do your steps in London ? just by walking to the bus stop.’ She doesn’t love glitzy LA parties, either. 

‘I’m the same Wunmi: I find 産業 stuff 苦悩-inducing and いつかs boring. Thankfully, my husband is LA-born and raised, so we have his school friends, family, people who aren’t in the 産業, and that’s my social 始める，決める.’ 

She didn’t 計画（する） on her career 存在 in the US, ‘but the stuff here in LA is 利益／興味ing and there’s a lot more of it: you can audition every day in America; you could audition every day for 活気／アニメーションs in America.’

What’s more, ‘There’s a spirit of 革命 i n America, whether you like it or not,’ she says. ‘People don’t sit around, they try and 押し進める things to change and it can happen very 急速な／放蕩な.

It can feel exciting and scary, 肯定的な and 消極的な.’ It’s the clearest difference, she says, between where she is now and where she’s from. ‘In America, I’m always thinking, “冷気／寒がらせる out!” In the UK I’m like, “C’mon! Wake up, let’s do something different!”’

What’s next? ‘I would like to do a romantic 演劇 or a political show ? I’d love to play a UK 首相,’ she says. ‘But TV and film often feel like a の近くにd shop, on and off camera. 

We have a long way to go in the UK ーに関して／ーの点でs of 代表 between genders and race.’

I ask about her 令状ing. How is it going? She seems shy. ‘I still 令状, but I don’t 株 it,’ she says. ‘The thing I was working on in 2017 didn’t get green-lit and it made me pause as it takes a lot of energy. I thought, “Maybe I’m not good at this.” 

With 事実上の／代理, if I don’t get a 役割, I don’t take it 本人自身で. With 令状ing, I 港／避難所’t learnt that.’ Her smile returns: ‘Yet.’

乗客 can be seen on ITV1 and ITVX

Bafta-winning actress and new mum Wunmi Mosaku tells Nick Curtis about her sense of belonging - whether to Manchester, Nigeria or Tinseltown