Dubliner Ruth Negga lands major Hollywood role in Colin Firth-backed movie
Former Love/Hate star Ruth Negga has landed a role in a Hollywood film to be produced by Oscar-winner Colin Firth (inset).
The movie, called Loving, tells the story of an interracial couple who are sent to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married.
Ruth has been cast as Mildred Loving, while The Great Gatsby star Joel Edgerton will play her husband, Richard.
The film will be directed by Jeff Nichols, who was behind the camera on Matthew McConaughey's indie hit, Mud.
Negga (32) has previously starred in Irish film Noble; Brad Pitt's World War Z; and the TV show Misfits.
The half-Irish, half-Ethiopian actress was also recently cast as the female lead in American cable channel AMC's new pilot, called Preacher, which tells the story of Jesse Custer, a Texan preacher who becomes possessed by a supernatural creature.
Negga plays his ex-girlfriend Tulip, who is described as a "force of nature". Her boyfriend, Dominic Cooper, will play Jesse.
Negga and Cooper (36) have been together since 2010 but have always remained tight-lipped about their romance. They got together after they played lovers in the dramatic play Phedre in the National Theatre in London, in 2009, and only confirmed they were a couple after they were snapped kissing.