‘A Small Light’ Star Bel Powley Recalls Hearing Kanye West’s ‘Unsettling’ Antisemitic Remarks While Filming the Holocaust TV Series
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Bel Powley stars in the National Geographic series “A Small Light” as Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Otto Frank and his family during WWII.
During a reception for the show Thursday at the San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood, the actor recalled being on set when she first heard about Kanye West’s antisemitic comments in October 2022. “We were filming the show when all of the Kanye stuff was happening,” Powley told me. “I was obviously living in the world of the show, which has a lot of Nazi rhetoric because we’re making a show about the Nazi occupation in 1942, but then suddenly seeing and hearing that same rhetoric spoken now by a world-famous celebrity with huge influence was so freaky and unsettling and saddening.” During a Q&A earlier in the evening, moderator Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) took off her Star of David necklace and gave it to Powley when she said she stopped wearing one after she and her sister were harassed by antisemitic bullies at school.
Powley said she’s not usually drawn to period pieces because she often finds them hard to relate to, but “A Small Light” offered a look at the Anne Frank story in a detailed and personal way she had never really seen before. “I know about this part of history, but I knew nothing about Miep,” Powley said. “I was so blown away to learn about this girl who was kind of just like me, a normal young woman.
Of course, she was a normal young woman who did this extraordinary thing. We need to keep telling these stories as less and less Holocaust survivors are still alive.
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