Bridgerton star Adjoa Andoh reveals why she had to 'fight' her way through school years
Adjoa Andoh learned to "fight" her way through her school years as the only black girl in the school.
Adjoa Andoh learned to "fight" her way through her school years.
The 61-year-old actress grew up in a small English village in which she and her family were the only black people and found that the other children "seized on her difference" so learned "very quickly" how to deal with it.
She told The Guardian: "There were three black people in our village: me, my dad and my brother. I was the only girl of colour in a secondary school of over 1,000 kids. Children seize on your difference.
"But they also seize on your smartness and your comedy value. I could also fight – I learned very quickly that that was the way to say, 'This far and no further!'
The 'Bridgerton' star also explained that becoming an actress was just not the done thing where she came from so shortly after her parents split up, she tried to go down the law route but ended up dropping out and experienced a "great awakening" when she discovered performing through a coach who suggested she audition for a play she was putting on in London.
She said: "Where I grew up, nobody was an actress. I had the interview at Cambridge University to do law, but I flunked all my A-levels. That was around the time my parents were divorcing.
"Eventually, I started the law degree, but bailed after two years because I’d joined a black women’s group at Bristol Polytechnic and met a San Francisco woman called Deb’bora John-Wilson, who ran acting classes. She got funded to do a show in London and suggested I audition for it – I got the part. It was a time of great awakening."
