‘A Small Light’ Star Bel Powley Recalls Hearing Kanye West’s ‘Unsettling’ Antisemitic Remarks While Filming the Holocaust TV Series

Bel Powley stars in the National Geographic series “A Small Light” as Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Otto Frank and his family during WWII. During a reception for the show Thursday at the San Vicente Bungalows in West Hollywood, the actor recalled being on set when she first heard about Kanye West’s antisemitic comments in October 2022.

“We were filming the show when all of the Kanye stuff was happening,” Powley told me. “I was obviously living in the world of the show, which has a lot of Nazi rhetoric because we’re making a show about the Nazi occupation in 1942, but then suddenly seeing and hearing that same rhetoric spoken now by a world-famous celebrity with huge influence was so freaky and unsettling and saddening.”

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During a Q&A earlier in the evening, moderator Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) took off her Star of David necklace and gave it to Powley when she said she stopped wearing one after she and her sister were harassed by antisemitic bullies at school.

Powley said she’s not usually drawn to period pieces because she often finds them hard to relate to, but “A Small Light” offered a look at the Anne Frank story in a detailed and personal way she had never really seen before. “I know about this part of history, but I knew nothing about Miep,” Powley said. “I was so blown away to learn about this girl who was kind of just like me, a normal young woman. Of course, she was a normal young woman who did this extraordinary thing. We need to keep telling these stories as less and less Holocaust survivors are still alive. It’s also important to tell them in different ways that are going to make people really think, ‘Oh, that’s a real person going through a real experience.’ That it’s not just historical facts.”

The “Small Light” team met Miep’s granddaughter when she visited the set, as well as at the series’ premiere in Amsterdam. “It was incredible, but I also think it was a mad experience for her because it was her grandma,” Powley said. “None of us could imagine our grandmother as a party girl and drinking and doing all that.”

Thursday’s Q&A also featured series creators Tony Phelan and Joan Rater and executive music producer Este Haim. The guest list included Elle Fanning, Kaia Gerber, Jenna Dewan, Busy Philipps, Sasha Alexander, Edoardo Ponti, Hilary Shor and Emmanuelle Chriqui.

“Speaking out against antisemitism in the current climate is very easy for me,” Einbinder said. “I’m very neurotic and sort of over analytical about every word that flies out of my mouth, but this is the one area of my life where I really have no problem making people uncomfortable or offending anyone. If people think I’m overreacting or if people think I’m being hypersensitive, I don’t care. It’s easy for me.”

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