What Kind of Hollywood Roles Is Meghan Markle Looking for Post-Royal Exit?
Prior to marrying into the British royal family in 2018, American-born Meghan Markle was best known as a television actress. Now that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and her husband, Prince Harry, have shed their royal duties and moved to Los Angeles, the duchess is eager to get back to work. What sort of roles is Meghan looking for? Here’s what we know:
Meghan Markle’s life before becoming a duchess
As noted by Harper’s Bazaar, Meghan’s bio at the official royal family website barely even mentions her years-long acting career. The site offers plentiful info about her education, charitable works, and foreign language skills, but barely acknowledges the considerable time she spent honing her craft before meeting and marrying Prince Harry.
Born in Los Angeles on August 4, 1981, Meghan grew up in the television and movie capital of the world. While attending Catholic school, she often visited the set of the irreverent TV series, Married… With Children, where her father, Thomas W. Markle, worked as a cinematographer and lighting director. Although she received no credit for the role, the future duchess made her first small-screen appearance on the show in the role of ‘student sitting on stage’ in 1995.
As the 21st century unfolded, Meghan appeared on numerous TV shows, including General Hospital, Love, Inc., 90210, CSI Miami, and Knight Rider. Meghan was in several movies, too, performing in films such as Get Him to the Greek, A Lot Like Love, and Random Encounters. The role that made Prince Harry’s spouse a household word was, of course, Rachel Zane in the acclaimed television series, Suits.
What kinds of roles does Meghan want?
According to UK Express, Meghan has her sights set high and hopes to land ‘breakout’ roles with A-list Hollywood directors such as Ava DuVernay who notably directed A Wrinkle in Time and Selma. A source close to the actress explained that although Meghan feels that the majority of movie offers she’s received are ‘cheesy and beneath her,’ there is no guarantee that major Hollywood directors will hire her. The unnamed source added that the process of putting Meghan together with a renowned director may take some time, due to the fact that the actress “wants to control every aspect of whatever project she ends up doing.”
Prince Harry helped Meghan land first post-royal acting job
Meghan hasn’t been idle as she anticipates future high-profile roles, and she seems to have the full support of her husband. In fact, he may have helped her get her first job since departing England.
Last July, the then-royal pair attended the premiere of The Lion King in London where Prince Harry was spotted talking to Disney executive Bob Iger. According to People magazine, one topic of the conversation was Meghan’s voice over skills.
In a video snippet of the encounter, Prince Harry can be heard touting his wife’s voice acting chops to a surprised Iger who replied that Disney would ‘love to’ give Meghan a try. Apparently, the prince’s pitch worked.
Meghan’s Hollywood comeback comes in the form of a nature doc on the Disney Plus network. Touted as ‘narrated by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex,’ Elephant tells the story of a pachyderm named Shani and her family’s 8,000-mile migration across Africa. Animals have always held a special place in Markle’s heart, so her contract included a provision that Disney makes a sizable donation to Elephants Without Borders, says TMZ.
Meghan’s future in filmdom
According to a review in The Guardian, Meghan’s voice provides ‘spectacular torrents of schmaltz’ to the Disney nature doc. Nonetheless, Elephant offers spectacular scenes, extraordinary views, and an interesting story that is sure to delight youngsters.
Meghan reportedly told her agent, Nick Collins, that she’d like to land a gig as a superhero in a big Hollywood movie. Now that she’s on board with Disney, and Disney owns Marvel, it’s quite likely the duchess will get her wish.
