Tessa Thompson & Ruth Negga Join the Cast of Rebecca Hall's Directorial Debut 'Passing'

Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga have joined the cast of Rebecca Hall‘s directorial debut, Passing!

The duo are set to star in the upcoming adaptation of the 1920s Harlem Renaissance novel novel.

Passing follows “the unexpected reunion of two high school friends, whose renewed acquaintance ignites a mutual obsession that threatens both of their carefully constructed realities.”

The story also explores the practice of racial passing, which is when a person classified as a member of one racial group who seeks to be accepted by a different racial group.

“Nella Larsen’s Passing is an astonishing book about two women struggling not just with what it meant to be black in America in 1929, but with gender conventions, the performance of femininity, the institution of marriage, the responsibilities of motherhood, and the ways in which all of those forces intersect,” Rebecca told Deadline.

She added, “I came across the novel at a time when I was trying to reckon creatively with some of my personal family history, and the mystery surrounding my bi-racial grandfather on my American mother’s side. In part, making this film is an exploration of that history, to which I’ve never really had access.”