By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Queen Latifah to Star as Queer Blues Singer Bessie Smith in HBO Biopic
Pariah director Dee Rees will helm the project.
This seems like the perfect match! Queen Latifah is set to star as famed blues singer who kept female lovers Bessie Smith in an HBO biopic with Pariah director Dee Rees at the helm, according to Indiewire.
The project is still in the development stage but a mid-June production start date in Atlanta is on the docket, Indiewire reports.
Smith, born in 1912, in Chattanooga, Tenn., is widely credit with introducing the blues into popular American music. She kicked off her career performing with Ma Rainey and enjoyed a solid career, becoming the highest paid African American performer of the ‘20s. Her career began to wane during the Great Depression, when the recording industry was in decline, according to the University of Illinois website. A pioneer on many fronts, Smith sang songs with explicit lesbian lyrics, including “It’s Dirty But Good.” A married woman, Smith was said to keep many female lovers.
The biopic is titled Blue Goose Hollow after the place in Chatanooga where Smith grew up, according to Indiewire.
Latifah played lesbian in the '90s heist movie Set it Off, and her Mama Morton in Chicago was arguably Sapphic.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.
