FKA twigs will play Joséphine Baker in the biopic event of Maïmouna Doucouré
It is Maïmouna Doucouré, director of Mignonnes, who will tell the incredible life of the French icon of American origin.
After months of discreet development, the biopic dedicated to Joséphine Baker is finally moving up a gear. And the main casting is particularly unexpected: it is FKA twigs who will play the legendary dancer, singer, resistance fighter and French icon in the film written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré.
Filming is scheduled to begin next fall, with Studiocanal and Bien ou Bien Productions producing. A way of confirming the XXL ambitions of the project, which will be presented to international buyers during the Cannes Film Festival.
The choice of FKA branches sounds like a good idea. A total artist, the British singer has built her entire career around the mixture of music, performance, dance and the presentation of her own body, a legacy which inevitably recalls that of Joséphine Baker. Before this role, she had already made some notable forays into cinema, notably in Honey Boy by Alma Har’el, then in The Crow alongside Bill Skarsgård. More recently, Robert Pattinson’s former companion also shared the poster for Mother Mary with Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.
In a press release, Anna Marsh of Studiocanal welcomed a project “extraordinary and profoundly powerful”carried according to her by “the exceptional creative vision of Maïmouna Doucouré and the remarkable talent of FKA twigs”. The film also benefits from the support of Joséphine Baker’s sons, Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker, as well as the Rainbow Tribe.
It now remains to be seen how the film will approach the completely crazy trajectory of Joséphine Baker: superstar of the Roaring Twenties, spy for the Resistance, anti-racist activist and first black woman to enter the French Pantheon. On paper, it’s difficult to imagine a more ambitious biopic.
