Is Passing based on a book?

Passing is a movie set in 1920s New York and is focused on the entangled lives of two former childhood friends. Irene and Clare haven’t seen each other in well over a decade. They were young women when they parted and now are wives and mothers.

The hook of the film is its subject matter which is clearly stated in the title. This is a drama about passing otherwise known as adopting the life and style of a racial/ethnic identity that isn’t your own. In Clare’s case, she is a fair-skinned Black woman whose roots lie in Harlem though her husband is unaware of this fact.

Irene could pass but chooses not as she refuses to cross the color line for anything more than a short convenience. It’s a dangerous practice that could spell death and while the film is a fictional account of a historical phenomena, it doesn’t simply draw from history.

Here’s what we know about Passing‘s source material.

Is Passing based on a book?

The women Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga portray in Passing were first brought to life by Nella Larsen in the 1929 novel of the same name. The brush director and writer Rebecca Hall paints their story with in the film encompasses the key themes of the book especially what it means to give up vital pieces of yourself to gain what you thought you wanted.

While there is real depth to the movie, if you want a more rounded account of Clare and Irene’s histories both in family and thought, then you’ll want to check out Larsen’s novel. It explains where they both fall on the color line and why Clare made the choice to pass considering her home life was completely different from Irene’s.

Hall, along with Negga and André Holland (who plays Irene’s husband, Brian) will be in conversation with Uzo Aduba in Netflix’s inaugural episode of But Have You Read the Book? to discuss the book-to-screen process on Tuesday, Nov. 16. For more information check out netflixbookclub.com. Passing is available to stream now on Netflix.