Hi, I'm Lale Arakoglu, and this is Women Who Travel.

Today, I'm talking to actor Asima Thomas, who plays a young Lady Agatha Danbury in the soon-to-be-released

Netflix series, Queen Charlotte, a Bridgeton story from Shonda Rhymes.

Off-screen, however,

Asma has spent large swathes of her life

living in different countries across Africa.

It's an experience that has informed her approach to acting

and the role she's now playing.

I lived in Uganda, in Kampala,

Nairobi in Kenya,

a brief time in Dars Salam in Tanzania,

Kotonou in Benin, in West Africa,

Lome Togo, and Pretoria, South Africa.

You know, I've only moved countries once, but I feel like even that is an opportunity

for reinvention. Did you find yourself becoming a bit of a chameleon during those moves?

And do you think that's why you've ultimately ended up acting?

I think it's definitely why I'm a chameleon. Believe me, I've discussed this with my therapist

at nauseam. And I think specifically also growing up in different places, it meant that I didn't

really have like a home that I felt strong ties to. And that made me feel like I could just kind of blend in seamlessly and it was

definitely something I took advantage of yeah and maybe it is why I ended up doing acting because I can

I just opened up like a whole bunch of like self-rejection for you I know it's so possible I'm entering into the

abyss of my thoughts now.

...