Hustle, Harder ::: Viola Davis To Produce and Act In New Biopic
After her exceptional role in “The Help,” Viola Davis was nominated for several awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award. She also won a Screen Actors Guild Award, amongst other titles. Now, she is taking her talents on to a new project. This time she will be producing a biopic about the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. She will be producing alongside her husband, actor Julius Tennon, actress Shelly Glasser, and producer Diane Nabatoff. They will base their film off of the biography novel, “Barbara Jordan: American Hero,” written by Mary Beth Rogers. The film will be about Barbara Jordan’s challenging upbringing, growing up in a poor, Houston neighborhood, and how she blossomed into an influential member of Texas politics, and an important part of the Civil Rights Movement. (She was the first African American woman to join the Texas Senate and the first African American woman from the South to join the House of Representatives.) Of the movie, Paris Barclay explained,
“In a world of movies about giants and Martians and toys come to life, if you can actually get involved with a movie about a human who single-handedly changed American politics, you say ‘yes.’ We’re hoping this becomes a movie that shows the world everything that Viola can do. People haven’t seen everything that she’s capable of, and this role is so powerful.”
In addition to producing the film, Washington Post has also confirmed that Viola will be putting her acting skills to work for the film too. Supposedly she will play the Congresswoman, herself. We hope so!
[Variety]