One of the policies of this column is that I only write about people no more than five years younger than I am. This is because I firmly believe people significantly younger than that, even if their careers have been going for some time, they are likely to have many years to come to develop their careers even further. You never know what direction someone will go; even someone like Steve Martin will suddenly mostly leave acting aside and go off touring with his bluegrass group. It used to be no younger than I am, but age happens to all of us. Which is leading up to the information that Rosario Dawson’s adoptive daughter, who is about 23, is pregnant and will be making Rosario Dawson, two and a half years younger than I am, a grandmother.

Yeah, yeah, front stoop, Harmony Korine, we all know the story. Though it’s worth noting that Dawson had already been on Sesame Street by then. Still, it seems unlikely to me that she would’ve had the career she has without that fortuitous moment. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen Kids, but by the time I was in college, she had an established career based on the strength of that performance. Her career has been uneven; I’m sure The Adventures of Pluto Nash seemed like a good move at the time.

I know a lot of people don’t like the Netflix Marvel shows, and goodness knows you’ll get no defense of Iron Fist here. But no one with any sense blames her for the show’s problems regardless of what they think of them. As Claire Temple, she did good work. It’s also clear that she doesn’t scorn franchise work because of her MCU experiences, given she’s voicing Wonder Woman for DC and also is Ahsoka Tano for Star Wars. I’m sure there are plenty of people who think she’s wasting her talents in those roles, but would she take new ones if she weren’t enjoying herself?

In most of the roles I’ve seen her in, no matter what she’s doing or saying, there’s both an underlying strength and an underlying sense of humour. She has a spark to her. She plays clever women, smart women. Women of fire and substance. She’s an attractive woman who isn’t afraid of looking a little battered. Or, you know, alien. She can clearly play any kind of role she chooses to.

The history of people of African descent in the Americas is a complicated one. Dawson’s ancestry is not purely African, but very few black Americans have purely African ancestry. Wikipedia calls her of black, Taíno, Puerto Rican, and Cuban descent—but “Puerto Rican” and “Cuban” covers a lot of heritage. My own Puerto Rican uncle-by-marriage turned out to have Chinese ancestry in addition to the more expected ones. I’d love to see her on Finding Your Roots. And if yesterday’s honoree Ossie Davis could’ve made a great President, it’s equally true that it’s fascinating to consider that there might be a universe out there where Rosario Dawson was First Lady to a President Cory Booker.

Reward me for making myself feel old by contributing to my Patreon or Ko-fi!