“I’ve become aware that I’m not very good at celebrating myself, especially because this job has been so difficult…” Francesca trails off, skirting around the unpleasant context that has, in some ways, blighted what should have been a resounding highlight of her career. “Where there might have been more joy, there hasn’t. Now it’s done, I’m reflecting back like, ‘Oh, this is such a big achievement.’ And actually, yeah, it’s an honour to be recognised by GLAMOUR, it’s something to celebrate.”
Let’s get the unpleasant context out of the way. When Francesca’s casting as Juliet was first announced in April, the worst of society crawled out of the internet’s woodwork to repeat a pattern that’s become all too familiar for Black actors, particularly women. Similar to the backlash Halle Bailey received for her role in The Little Mermaid last year, these people took issue with the fact that Francesca isn’t white and – as a statement from the theatre company that staged the show, Jamie Lloyd Company, put it – directed “a barrage of deplorable racial abuse online” towards her.
“I suspected when I was cast that this would happen,” says Francesca, her face scrunching up as she chooses her next words. “But you can’t really prepare yourself for that level of exposure. It was really difficult. It happened as we were just about to start rehearsals, and it was ongoing throughout the show, so it affected my whole experience.
“I’m reminded of the Nina Simone quote: ‘The worst thing about that kind of prejudice… is that… it feeds you self-doubt,’” she continues. “It’s a constant battle of not feeling good enough, especially being in that room opposite Tom. Already, I was feeling incredibly insecure.”
It’s almost impossible to believe, having watched Francesca on stage. Her strikingly original take on Juliet crackled with wit, modernity and real-world authenticity, so much so that you almost forgot the lines she’s reading are more than 400 years old. Juliet in Francesca’s hands was cool, confident, the girl you want to be mates with at school; smart and slightly sarcastic, but vulnerable enough to let you in. Audiences may have been enticed by Tom Holland’s casting to fork out for tickets, but they left knowing that Francesca’s a star of equal measure.
And to think, acting was never really her thing in the first place. Growing up in the countryside near Brighton, Francesca has always found solace in music. The middle child between two brothers, she wouldn’t say she had a tough upbringing, but living in a mostly white area meant she had to learn how to deal with microaggressions early on. What’s more, her Ghanaian-Nigerian heritage was complicated by the fact her dad was fostered by a white family in the UK as a child, meaning she had three cultural identities to reckon with: her dad’s English upbringing, his family back in Ghana and her mum’s Nigerian roots. Music was one of the things that helped her connect the dots.
“In terms of my familial relationships, there’s not always been a language to speak about things, but there’s always been music,” says Francesca. At 10, she started playing the piano, inspired by her older brother. Then, she heard Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring for the first time and became fixated on learning the bassoon. “That taught me a lot, because the bassoon is the butt of all the jokes in the [school] orchestra,” she says, with an unmistakable wide grin. “I was just the weird one making fart sounds in the back.” The most formative instrument for Francesca, though, has been the djembe drum, which she learned to play with her uncles at a market in Ghana. “That always calms me and helps me connect to my inner tempo.”