Jeremy Pope To Play Sammy Davis Jr. In Film About His Interracial Love Affair, Janet Mock Will Direct
Jeremy Pope To Play Sammy Davis Jr. In Film Directed By Janet Mock
Emmy nominated actor Jeremy Pope will be starring in a new film being directed by Janet Mock called “Scandalous!”. Jeremy Pope, who was recently nominated for an Emmy for his role in the Netflix series Hollywood, will be playing legendary entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. The film centers around the interracial love affair between the entertainer and actress Kim Novak, who at the time was at the top of the box office at the time. Janet Mock and the other producers of the film have yet to find an actress to play Kim Novak.
The upcoming film is supposed to be similar to a “Romeo and Juliet” love story between the two Hollywood stars. Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr. reportedly fell in love in 1957, at a time when Sammy was breaking color barriers with his growing popularity and Kim was starring in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. They both faced major racist backlash as interracial relationships were illegal at the time and weren’t legal until 1967, thanks to the ruling on Loving vs. Virginia.
There are many rumors surrounding the details of their relationship including an alleged hit on Sammy Davis Jr. from Harry Cohn who was the head of Columbia Pictures and discovered Kim Novak, as well as exploited the actress.
Jeremy Pope is a rising actor in Hollywood and starred in the Broadway play Choir Boy. Jeremy Pope earned two Tony award nominations for his role in the play and then went on to star in the Netflix series Hollywood. For that role, Jeremy earned an Emmy nomination for Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
Janet Mock, who stars in the FX series Pose and is a writer and director for Hollywood. She became the first trans woman to secure a studio deal at Netflix.
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