You gave such an emotional speech last year. How long did that emotional high last for you? I think you still feel a little bit of it when you come back here today?
I always felt like you had to be pretty, you had to be thin, you had to be young, you have to be… something. And now I know the truth, I’m worthy. That’s a good start.
TriStar has picked up the worlwide rights to the project.
Oscar winners Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o will play onscreen mother and daughter in The Woman King for TriStar Pictures.
Inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries, The Woman King tells the story of Nanisca (Davis), general of the all-female military unit known as the Amazons, and her daughter Nawi (Nyong’o), who together fought the French and neighboring tribes who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for.
The film is based on an original idea by Maria Bello, who will produce via her Jack Blue Productions. Cathy Schulman will produce through her Welle Entertainment, along with Davis and and her husband Julius Tennon via their JuVee Productions.
TriStar president Hannah Minghella and Nicole Brown will oversee the project for the studio.
“The Woman King is the powerful true story of an extraordinary mother-daughter relationship,” said Minghella. “And there’s no-one more extraordinary than Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong’o to bring them to life.”
Davis, who is repped by CAA, Lasher Group and Litcher Grossman, can currently be seen in the fourth season of the ABC series How to Get Away With Murder and will next be seen in Steve McQueen’s crime thriller Widows.
Nyong’o is currently in theaters with Marvel’s massively popular Black Panther, and is set for zombie comedy Little Monsters. She is repped by Del Shaw and CAA.
A lot of the women who have stepped forward – and I stand in solidarity with them – what they’re getting paid, which is half of what a man is getting paid, well we get probably a tenth of what a Caucasian woman gets. And I’m number one on the call sheet. And then I have to go in and I have to hustle for my worth.
The one thing I feel is lacking in Hollywood today is an understanding of the beauty, the power, the sexuality, the uniqueness, the humor of being a regular Black woman.
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