NEW YORK — Billy Porter’s dream role of playing writer James Baldwin has turned into reality.
The Emmy, Grammy and Tony Award winner has been tapped to co-write, co-produce and star in an upcoming biopic about the cultural icon for Allen Media Group Motion Pictures.
The film will be based on the 1994 book “James Baldwin: A Biography,” written by David Leeming. The University of Connecticut emeritus English professor was an assistant and friend of the trailblazing scribe for 25 years.
Porter will team up with frequent collaborator Dan McCabe on the script.
Baldwin was an openly gay, African American writer and civil rights activist who died in 1987 at the age of 63.
“As a Black queer man on this planet with relative consciousness, I find myself, like James Baldwin said, ‘in a rage all the time,’” Porter said in a statement on Wednesday.
“I am because James was. I stand on James Baldwin’s shoulders, and I intend to expand his legacy for generations to come,” the “Kinky Boots” star added.
During his acceptance speech at the 2019 Emmys for outstanding lead actor in a drama series, the “Pose” star name-checked his idol, saying: “James Baldwin said, ‘[It] took many years of vomiting up all the filth that I had been taught about myself and halfway believed before I could walk around this Earth like I had the right to be here.’”
“I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right,” Porter added.
Born in Harlem, Baldwin’s prolific writings included social commentary, essays, novels, plays and poems about race, sexuality and the politics of the time.
His best-known works include “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” “The Fire Next Time,” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” the latter of which was adapted into a Oscar Award-winning 2018 film helmed by Barry Jenkins.
———
