Talk:Rebecca Hall/Archive 1

Dating Freddie Stevenson
I could not find anything to support the claim that "Hall is dating the musician Freddie Stevenson". I searched Google but had only a quick look through his blog. If someone can support this then it can be added to the article again. WindsorFan 23:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
 * I added the link. you can see a recent pic of themm together here, and since he's releasing songs with titles like "She's a film star" (bless!), my inclination is that they're still together. I also altered the opening paragraph, as it's meant to say what they're notable for - winning the charleson for a debut is a rarity. Also, I suspect that those people who do really know who she is, have probably encountered her in connection with as you like it, even though her films are higher-profile.Amo 08:22, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

"Young Sophie"
Personally, i disagree that the y should be capitalised, just because she is credited that way. She played the younger version of Claire Bloom's Sophy - writing "young Sophy" is just a good description of her role, and will make sense to anyone who's read the book. But it's not a big deal, and i'm not aware of any prescendant, so i'm not going to change it unless anyone else feels strongly. Amo 20:41, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Parents' marriage
In Maria Ewing's article: "In 1982, she married the English theatre director Sir Peter Hall. The marriage ended in 1990; during this period of her life she was formally styled Lady Hall. Their daughter is the actress Rebecca Hall. Ewing makes her home near her birthplace." This does not agree with a divorce at the age of five stated for Rebecca Hall.--Felix Folio Secundus (talk) 19:45, 12 October 2010 (UTC)

Benedict Cumberbatch
The statement that Rebecca Hall has been dating Benedict Cumberbatch should be sourced. Robert McClenon (talk) 15:09, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Vandalism
Just as a matter of interest, does anyone have any idea what the anonymous editor who has recently been vandalising this page from different IP addresses might have against it? (Beyond, that is, his/her belief that Rebecca Hall is "a lying government 'actress' from eurasia with a fraudulent false biographical ancestry stating that it is American".) His/her editing skills, level of rational thinking, and command of the English language all seem to plumb equally abysmal depths, to the extent that I for one am left completely bemused as to what his/her problem actually is. Any enlightenment would be much appreciated. GrindtXX (talk) 00:59, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Positively no substance to Hall nonsensical claim to American ancestry. Whether for show business or ulterior political motives such comments/claims by Hall are biased, witless and groundless usually exclaimed when speaking publicly against the culture and politics of The United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and other American nations and usually used as a political slight against American cultures and politics. Such false information and biased unenforceable claims should not be included as fact and information in a Wikipedia entry. VALID REALITY (talk) 13:34, 3 May 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by VALID REALITY (talk • contribs) 13:19, 3 May 2013 (UTC) VALID REALITY (talk) 13:32, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Look, you spew claims and accusations but you don't give a single source to back them up, whereas the article has multiple sources which state that Rebecca Hall's mother Maria Ewing is of mixed Sioux, Scottish and African-American ancestry. And it's not in articles about Hall, but in articles about her mother - who is a noteworthy person in her own right- so accusations that it's for Hall's business or ulterior political motives are just plain stupid. So, in my opinion you're either engaging in a vendetta or are just plain a vandal in disguise. Wkikpedia is not the place for axes to grind. -- fdewaele, 3 May 2013, 15:40 (CET).
 * Thank you for at least clarifying what the issue is. I can only endorse what fdewaele says. I don't think there's any dispute over the fact that Rebecca Hall's mother is Maria Ewing, born in Detroit and an American citizen: therefore, Hall undeniably has American ancestry. The questions arise over Ewing's more remote ancestry, and if you want to challenge them maybe this is a discussion you should be having over on the talk page for her article. Has Hall ever made a single public statement about her ancestry, or has anyone ever referred to it in a profile of her? If so, please point us towards those sources: I'm sure we'd like to cite them in this article. Conversely, if there have indeed been "many, many complaints about Hall's falsely claimed ancestry" (or even just one), please let us know where to find them: again, we'd love to include a citation. Otherwise, please go away. GrindtXX (talk) 15:25, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * No. All those who have written of this actress person long before me are correct. She has no such American ancestry, and apparently no such African and other claimed ancestries. She is on the surface a British/Caucasian actress. If she has any American ancestry beyond a caucasian citizen mother then it would probably be best that she prove it, but she has not done so. You kind of read like you're posting on behalf of the movie company behind her career or somesuch. Hall has no such reality in America as has been stated countless times throughout her media career. Wikipedia should be about open facts, not flights of fancy. We need to move on from protecting this media entity. Real facts are what Wikipedia is about. I'm only here to state real facts and help improve the Wikipedia experience. --VALID REALITY (talk) 16:54, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * What are you saying about Rebecca Hall's ancestry? You say that you are here to state real facts.  Do you have any sources to back up the claim that she does not have American ancestry?  To argue that, you have to show either that she is not the daughter of Maria Ewing, or that Maria Ewing is not of the mixed American ancestry that is stated.  Both of those facts are sourced.  Do you have alternate sources that contradict Rebecca Hall's American ancestry?    Robert McClenon (talk) 19:12, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * This is a strange discussion! There is an abundance of evidence that Rebecca Hall's mother is Maria Ewing, who is American.  If you search Google Images for Maria Ewing, there are numerous photos of mother and daughter together.  Incidentally, Maria Ewing's part African-American ancestry is fairly noticeable in the pictures.  Rebecca resembles her mother, but the African-American ancestry is no longer obvious.  The other puzzling thing in Valid Reality's comments is his (or her) reference to Hall 'speaking publicly against the culture and politics of the United States (etc)'.  Now this is an interesting claim, and if it is true it might be worth adding a section to the article to cover it.  But I don't recall any such public statements by Rebecca Hall, and on searching Google for 'Rebecca Hall politics' I didn't find anything relevant.  So I think Valid Reality is imagining it.  Could he/she possibly be confusing Rebecca with someone else entirely??109.156.138.68 (talk) 14:25, 19 May 2013 (UTC)
 * In some pictures of Rebecca Hall, she does appear to have African-American features. (At least, she does to a European-American who lives in a racially mixed city where many people are fractionally African-American.)  The editor who says that she is not African-American is arguing with referenced reliable sources.    Robert McClenon (talk) 15:02, 19 May 2013 (UTC)

Needs better picture
Hard to really tell what she looks like because of the large sunglasses CrocodilesAreForWimps (talk) 01:00, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

English American?
As there's previously been edit-warring on this page about Hall's ethnicity, ancestry and nationality, I'm bringing this to Talk first. For some time now, there has been consensus on calling her "English American". An IP has just linked that term to the page English American. However, that page is specifically about Americans of English ancestry. Hall is, if anything, a Briton of American ancestry: she was born and raised in Britain, but has an American mother, and dual nationality. To my mind, the link is certainly inappropriate, and, now the issue's been raised, the term isn't ideal either. However, I'm not sure I can think of a better one (American English?). Comments? GrindtXX (talk) 22:51, 29 August 2014 (UTC) Agreed - the term describes what type of American she is which is inaccurate. She is both an American of English ancestry and also English of American ancestry. The term ignores half of this. Being born and raised in England would also make it possible to claim that the more relevant part was being ignored. I have edited to calling her an Actress with both English and American citizenship.Sue De Nimes (talk) 11:07, 8 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Some of these edits could be coming from the sock farm identified here.Deb (talk) 11:33, 20 June 2017 (UTC)

Need to improve wording of latest additions
For the benefit of User:Nyxaros, I'll explain here what is better about the wording which you've now reverted twice: Now perhaps you could give some reasons why you think your wording is better (apart from the fact that it's your wording). Deb (talk) 08:10, 26 March 2021 (UTC)
 * 1) "Premiere", when used as a verb, is transitive, thus "was premiered" is perfectly correct.
 * 2) "also had two other films that were released in 2021" is extremely clumsy. What do you mean by "had"? Why not use the more precise wording that I introduced: "Hall appeared in another film released in 2021: Godzilla vs. Kong, and also made her feature film debut as a director in Passing, which she also wrote and co-produced."? You haven't given a reason.
 * 3) The phrases "monster film" and "drama" are superfluous and without them the sentence flows better and is less verbose.
 * 4) "Passing premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and received critical acclaim before its distribution rights were acquired by Netflix for approximately $16 million" is again both clumsy and verbose in comparison with " Passing was premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival before its distribution rights were acquired by Netflix for approximately $16 million." To be honest, it would be even better if we took out "for approximately $16 million".
 * 5) Both of the "references" are in the form of raw URLs, which are discouraged.
 * None of these are good reasons. I've already changed it before you started this discussion. As you can see from the dictionaries: Oxford, Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, TheFreeDictionary, they prefer to use "premiered". Literally all the other productions of Hall include genre phrases ("superhero film Iron Man 3, political thriller Closed Circuit (2013), romantic comedy Tumbledown...), so why not continue for the sake of consistency? Raw URLs might be "discouraged", but that doesn't mean we should remove them. ภץאคгöร 14:40, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
 * So you accept that "was premiered" is not a grammatical error as you first claimed? In fact, it's British English, which is what this article uses, so we don't look at American dictionaries like Merriam-Webster to see what to do. The fact that genre phrases are used elsewhere in the article doesn't make them useful or necessary, especially when this is already a long article, out of proportion to her significance as an actress; let's get rid of the lot. Yes, raw URLs must be changed; if you can't be bothered, someone else will have to. Deb (talk) 15:12, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I don't accept or deny anything. Merriam-Webster is American, but Oxford is not. If you think genres are a serious problem to the article, you should get rid of all of them instead of a few. ภץאคгöร 15:31, 28 March 2021 (UTC)

Sioux American Ancestry
Positively no substance to Hall nonsensical claim to American ancestry. Whether for show business or ulterior political motives such comments/claims by Hall are biased, witless and groundless usually exclaimed when speaking publicly against the culture and politics of The United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and other American nations and usually used as a political slight against American cultures and politics. Such false information and unenforceable claims should not be included as fact and information in a Wikipedia entry. --VALID REALITY (talk) 16:41, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Please do not top-post to talk pages. Again, do you have sources to dispute her ancestry?    Robert McClenon (talk) 17:49, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I've noticed that in the 2010 Guardian interview here (already cited in the article, but not on this particular point), Hall actually does talk about her ancestry: the reference seems more relevant than those which are really about her mother, so I've added it at the appropriate place. On the subject of her mother's background, Hall says: "Her mother was Dutch, her father half Native American Sioux Indian and half black of some unknown origin."
 * As there has previously been some edit-warring on this page over whether Hall should be placed in Category:Black British actresses, it's also interesting to note that she is specifically asked whether she identifies herself as black, to which she replies "No, you could not get more white and middle class and English than me." GrindtXX (talk) 15:23, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
 * There’s an episode of Finding Your Roots (S8E1) in which it is determined through genetic testing that Rebecca Hall has zero Native American DNA. Norman Isaac Ewing fabricated the Sioux ancestry to escape anti-Black discrimination. tharsaile (talk) 01:24, 5 January 2022 (UTC)