There is the argument that casting a Black woman in a role that was originally written for a non-brown actress might be slightly easier with someone like Mbatha-Raw, who has light skin and appears ethnically ambiguous. There’s also the argument that when the entertainment industry focuses on simply slotting minorities into existing roles, it gets a pass on creating stories for and about people of color. At the same time, Mbatha-Raw points out, the road to more diversity in entertainment means we need storylines where color is simply not a factor. She believes that movies like Irreplaceable You, where the fact that her protagonist just so happens to be in an interracial relationship is never discussed, are important for normalization . And no matter what her role is, one of her signatures is rocking her natural curls.