While the historical action film “The Woman King” is Thuso Mbedu’s first feature film, it’s been a long time coming. The “Underground Railroad” actress has overcome a number of challenges in her life so far, and said she’s been “living on survival mode” for most of the time.
“The first challenge that I had to overcome was growing up in South Africa. I was raised by my grandmother, I lost my mother to a brain tumor at the age of four,” Mbedu said in an emotional installment of TheWrap’s How She Did It, presented by Johnnie Walker. “In high school, I had my best friend bring me lunch because sometimes we didn’t have food.”