Thandie Newton -- Celebrity Green Report
Written By Katherine Sansom, UK
May 22, 2007
Thandie Newton has appeared in more than two-dozen Hollywood blockbusters since 1991, and won numerous awards – including a BAFTA for her role in the award-winning ‘Crash’ in 2004, but a monumental turning point in her life came earlier this year when she was visited by Greenpeace.
Thandie returned to the BMW X5 (that she had purchased because she felt the 4x4 was the safest vehicle for her two small children) to find a Greenpeace sticker on the windscreen reading: ‘This gas-guzzling 4x4 is causing climate change’. When eggs were then hurled at the car as her husband, Oliver Parker, was driving it, Thandie decided to do some research and was shocked at what she discovered.
"I just felt so ignorant. It was terrifying”, she said, and contacted Greenpeace for more information about the issues around the imminent depletion of our natural resources and the action that individuals can take. Inspired by the organization’s advice, Thandie swapped her 4x4 for a Toyota Prius and wrote letters to her colleagues and friends in Hollywood who also own 4x4s, urging them to do as she had done and get rid of their gas-guzzlers. The letter pointed out their high profiles and potential for raising awareness amongst the general public, and encouraged them to read up on the issues as she had done.
None of the recipients of the plea – who are believed to include Mel Gibson, Jack Nicholson, Adam Sandler, Madonna and Robin Williams – have yet responded, but the star has not been deterred and has begun using her interviews as opportunities to call for greater public action on climate change and our ‘addiction to oil’.
