In recent years, FKA twigs has been taking more and more movie roles, playing supporting parts in films like The Carpenter's Son and the rebooted version of The Crow. Just last month, twigs was onscreen in David Lowery's pop-star thriller Mother Mary, and she also wrote songs for its soundtrack. Now, twigs has taken on her first lead role, playing the Jazz Age star Josephine Baker in an upcoming biopic.
Variety reports that twigs will play Josephine Baker in a new film from Maïmouna Doucouré, the French writer and director behind the controversial 2020 film Cuties. The film, set to begin filming this fall, is financed and co-produced by Studiocanal, and that company will put its international right up for auction at Cannes.
It's hard to imagine a project better-suited to FKA twigs' unique skillset. Josephine Baker, the daughter of a Black American vaudeville performer, was born in St. Louis in 1906. She endured terrible poverty and racist abuse as a child. As a young teenager, she moved to New York and began her career as a dancer. In 1925, she moved to Paris and became a celebrity and a sex symbol. During World War II, she secretly aided the French Resistance, and she advocated for the American Civil Rights movement later in her life. Diana Ross portrayed Baker as part of her Tony-winning 1977 show An Evening With Diana Ross, and Lynn Whitfield won an Emmy for playing Baker in the 1991 HBO movie The Josephine Baker Story.
In a statement, FKA twigs says:
I am honored to collaborate with the immensely talented Maïmouna Doucouré on this incredible project. Josephine Baker’s extraordinary legacy is such an inspiration to me and to so many people around the world. She lives on in our hearts as a visionary, groundbreaking woman whose story is as powerful as it is relevant today. I cannot wait to embody Josephine Baker bringing her fight, her love, her losses, her talent, and her heroism to the big screen.
