After receiving rave reviews in Lee Daniels’ The Butler last year, Oprah Winfrey is returning to the big screen. According to reports, the media mogul is not only producing Ava DuVernay’s Selma, she’s staring in the civil rights drama too.
MUST READ: Oprah Fights Back Tears During Moving Tribute To Maya Angelou
The Wrap reports O will play a freedom fighter Annie Lee Cooper, an elderly Selma, Ala. woman who stood in line for hours to register to vote at the Dallas County Courthouse but was unfairly denied.
The film, following Martin Luther King Jr.’s landmark 1965 voting rights campaign, also features an all-star cast of David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr.; Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King; Cuba Gooding Jr. as Fred Gray; Common as James Bevel; Ledesi as Mahalia Jackson; Tom Wilkinson as Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson; Tim Roth as George Wallace; Wendell Pierce as Rev. Hosea Williams; Stephan James as John Lewis; Nigel Thatch as Malcolm X; Stan Houston as Sheriff Jim Clark; and Keith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson.
MUST READ: Ledisi To Play Mahalia Jackson In Ava DuVernay’s MLK Biopic ‘Selma’
Oprah, who was filing in Georgia at the time of Maya Angelou’s death, said the beloved poet gave Selma her blessing. “She was so proud that I was doing this movie. And she said, ‘Take it baby. Take it all the way. Take it all the way,’” O told Entertainment Tonight. “She was a part of the movement, worked with Martin Luther King, understood what we were trying to do with this film.”
The Oscar-nominated actress is producing the project along with Brad Pitt.
RELATED STORIES
Oprah Responds To Donald Sterling: ‘The Plantation Days Are Over!’
Oprah, Beyonce & FLOTUS Top Forbes’ Most Powerful Women List
Check Out This Gallery
