For 24-year-old Masali Baduza, who plays Persephone “Sephy” Hadley, the ruling-class half of the
forbidden love story at the centre of Noughts + Crosses, it was head-spinning. She grew up in East London,
outside Cape Town, in post-Apartheid South Africa. “Thinking of what my ancestors have been through
before me and how they were treated, for me to be playing a character who is privileged, historically?” says
Masali, “It’s crazy.”
It was tough to get into the mindset of a world where crosses believe that they are superior to noughts,
Masali adds. She was born shortly after Apartheid ended in the early Nineties, and the remnants of
discriminatory rules and laws were still in effect while she was at school.
Vibrant and regal: Baduza in Sephy’s striking
‘Aprican’ dress (BBC/Mammoth Screen/Ilze
Kitshoff)“We had a rule book of things we could and couldn’t do to our hair – including one that said black girls
couldn’t wear their natural afros because it was unprofessional and it looked unkempt,” she tells me. “We
had to style our hair into something that was more ‘acceptable’.” Masali takes a deep breath. “You know,
having that as your mindset as a young black girl is just... traumatising. It’s kind of like who you are
naturally is not good enough”.
I’m talking to her on a blustery day in central London. Dressed down in leggings, she’s nursing a cup of
herbal tea after a long, exhausting day of interviews. But Masali, her impressively voluminous afro puff still
intact after the London premiere of the first episode, insists that she’s absolutely fine. “Great”, in fact. “This
is a moment as an actor I felt like I’ve dreamed of for so long and to be living it? Honestly, it’s the best
feeling ever.”
We had a rule book of things we could and couldn’t do to our hair – including one that said black girls
couldn’t wear their natural afros because it was unprofessional and looked unkempt
In the fictional Albion, as the daughter of the uncompromising home secretary, Kamal Hadley (played by
Paterson Joseph), living under a regime that works explicitly in her favour, Sephy suffers none of the
discrimination that Masali knows well. Her afro hair and wardrobe is vibrant, regal and drawn directly from
Aprican culture. The home she lives in is grand and imposing. With access to the best education, her future
prospects are golden compared to the destitution the noughts are forced to live under. And it’s a reality
she’s only just beginning to wake up to, thanks to a fledgling romance with her housekeeper’s son, Callum.
Fresh from a film course at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, Masali landed the part after an
electric chemistry read in London with Peaky Blinders’ Jack Rowan, who plays Callum, Sephy’s romantic
interest and the show’s lead. “That was the first time I’d ever been flown over for an audition,” she says.