Erykah Badu’s IMDB page has a new entry. She has been added to the cast of Netflix’s forthcoming film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Piano Lesson. The GRAMMY Award-winning songstress will get a chance to once again flex her acting chops in the movie, which stars Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington.
Jackson and Washington will reprise their roles as Doaker Charles and Boy Willie from the recent Broadway revival of The Piano Lesson while Badu will have more of a cameo. Her character hasn’t been revealed yet, but her role is being described as one that will highlight “her soulful sound and eclectic style” and she’ll contribute musical performances to the film.
With The Piano Lesson set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1936, expect Erykah to tap into the jazz of the era and channel some of the greats from the Dirty Thirties, such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Ethel Waters, with her own brand of Baduizm. This role follows her previous acting turns in What Men Want, They Die By Dawn and The Cider House Rules.
Netflix’s The Piano Lesson is being produced by Denzel Washington and Todd Black, the duo who’ve brought August Wilson’s Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom from the stage to the screen in recent years. Malcolm Washington is attached to direct a script co-written with Virgil Williams.
Additional actors who have been cast to bring August Wilson’s family drama about the Charles family and their beloved family piano with designs carved into it by an enslaved ancestor to life on screen include Stephan James, Corey Hawkins, Danielle Deadwyler and Gail Bean.
