The actress, singer, musician, everything is starring in “Harriet” and “Homecoming.”
Tre'vell AndersonWhen Janelle Monáe sets her mind to do something, we might want to listen. The Dirty Computer and archandroid put us on notice in 2016 that she was planning to take Hollywood by storm, then with back-to-back roles in two Oscar-nominated projects, Moonlight and Hidden Figures. (She even nabbed a few acting nods of her own during that awards season.) Now, her plan is in full motion with two new projects on the horizon.
The first is in Harriet, the biopic about slave-turned-spy Harriet Tubman. Tubman is played by Tony-winner and gay icon-in-training Cynthia Erivo while Monáe plays Marie, a free Black woman who teaches Tubman how to shoot guns. Eve’s Bayou director Kaci Lemmons is at the helm of the film that costars Hamilton’s Leslie Odom Jr. It’ll hit theaters Nov. 1.
The second project is Amazon’s critically-acclaimed psychological thriller drama series Homecoming. In her first major TV role, Monáe will be replacing season one headliner Julia Roberts for the show’s upcoming second season. A flex, if I do say so myself!
It’s been little over a year since theElectric Ladykicked down the closet door and became perhaps the most well-known pansexual ever — her coming out played a large part in Merriam-Webster naming 2018 the year of the pansexual. And contrary to common belief, being an out queer woman has not stopped her bag.
In addition to Harriet and Homecoming, Monáe will also star in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp live action reboot as Peg, the wise-cracking pound dog voiced in the 1955 original animated film by Peggy Lee. Additionally, she’ll appear alongside Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Bette Midler, and Lorraine Toussaint in the biopic about activist Gloria Steinem, titled The Glorias: A Life On the Road, playing Dorothy Pitman Hughes.
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