Queen Latifah is taking on the role of Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Academy Award, in the upcoming Netflix limited series Hollywood.
Entertainment Weekly published first-look photos on Wednesday showing Latifah in costume.
McDaniel took home a best supporting actress Oscar for playing “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind (1939). She was criticized for frequently playing servants during her career. Yet McDaniel famously responded that she would rather play a maid on screen than be one in real life. She died in 1952 at age 57.
In addition to Queen Latifah, Hollywood stars David Corenswet as Jack, Darren Criss plays Raymond, Jeremy Pope as Archie, Laura Harrier as Camille, Samara Weaving as Claire, Dylan McDermott as Ernie, Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid, Patti LuPone as Avis, Jim Parsons as Henry Willson, Jake Picking as Rock Hudson, Joe Mantello as Dick, and Maude Apatow as Henrietta.
The seven-part project comes from co-creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, and begins streaming on May 1.
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Per Netflix, “Hollywood follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown — no matter the cost. Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day. Provocative and incisive, Hollywood exposes and examines decades-old power dynamics, and what the entertainment landscape might look like if they had been dismantled.”
The series is executive produced by Murphy and Brennan, along with Alexis Martin Woodall and Janet Mock, who also serves as a writer and director.
