It’s confirmed, and the casting couldn’t be more perfect. FKA Twigs is officially set to star as Josephine Baker in an upcoming biopic directed by Maïmouna Doucouré, the French filmmaker behind Cuties and Hawa. The project was formally announced Monday ahead of this week’s Cannes Film Festival, where Studiocanal will launch worldwide sales, with production scheduled to begin this fall.
Twigs, a Grammy winner, dancer, choreographer, singer, and actor, is widely considered a natural fit for the role of Baker, whose own career spanned performance, activism, and cinema. Both women are multi-hyphenate artists who have pushed the boundaries of what a performer can be.
“I am honored to collaborate with the immensely talented Maïmouna Doucouré on this incredible project,” Twigs said in a statement. “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.”
Doucouré, who has championed stories centered on Black women throughout her career, has been sitting with this project for years. “Beyond the legend, I want to explore her contradictions, her wounds and her immense courage, as well as her relentless fight for dignity,” she said.
The film has the full blessing of Baker’s sons, Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker, along with her “Rainbow Tribe” of adopted children. Baker, born in St. Louis in 1906, became the first Black woman to star in a major motion picture in 1927, later joined the French Resistance during World War II, and was a prominent voice in the American civil rights movement.
