Thuso Mbedu

FOR MOST ACTORS, GETTING THE LEAD IN A HIGHLY ANTICIPATED PROJECT LIKE Amazon Prime’s The Underground Railroad (May 14) from Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins would be intimidating, but not for Thuso Mbedu, who plays Cora, the series lead. “Stuff like that doesn’t actually register.

- H. Alan Scott

I hear it, I get it, but when I’m at work, I’m here to be my best.” Just to add to the project’s weightiness, the limited series is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning Colson Whitehead novel of the same name and is Mbedu’s first American project after getting her start in South Africa. Even though it’s a historical project, Mbedu says it’s still very relevant, particularly for Black Americans. “It’s closer to home than people realize.” In many ways, Mbedu was able to see parts of herself in the character. “Cora healed parts of me that I didn’t know were wounded.” Even when she had do