Mo’Nique, Khandi Alexander Join Queen Latifah in Bessie Smith BiopicPosted by Wilson Morales
May 22, 2014
Source: Deadline
Deadline has learned that Academy Award winner Mo’Nique (‘Precious’) and Scandal’s Khandi Alexander will co-star opposite Queen Latifah in ‘Bessie,’ HBO’s film about legendary blues singer Bessie Smith.
Written and directed by Dee Rees (‘Pariah’), the film is based on the life story of Smith and the biography ‘Bessie’ written by Chris Albertson. The story centers on how Smith overcame her tempestuous personal life to become one of the greatest performing and recording artists of the 1920s and ’30s, earning the nickname ‘Empress of the Blues.’
According to the site, “Mo’Nique will play Ma Rainey, one of the first professional blues singer billed as The Mother of the Blues. Ma Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett) was already well known when she met then-young Bessie. According to a popular story, which has been disputed, Rainey kidnapped Smith, making her join the Rabbit Foot Minstrels, and teaching her to sing the blues. Alexander will play Bessie’s older sister, Viola. By the time Bessie was nine, both of her parents and one brother had died, with Viola taking care of her siblings.
Bessie is produced by HBO Films in association with Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere’s Flavor Unit Entertainment and Lili and the late Richard Zanuck’s the Zanuck Co., with Lili Fini Zanuck, Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, Shelby Stone and Randi Michel serving as executive producer and Richard Zanuck also getting a posthumous exec producer credit.”
Mo’Nique is making a comeback to the film world. Since winning the Oscar in 2009, she hosted her late-night talk show “The Mo’Nique Show” on BET and more recently appeared in Patrik Ian Polk’s Blackbird, opposite Isaiah Washington. For Alexander, it’s a return to HBO where she had roles in ‘The Corner’ and more recently ‘Treme.’ She’s been on ABC’s ‘Scandal’ recently, playing the role of Maya Lewis/ Maya Pope, the mother of Kerry Washington‘s Olivia Pope.
