Casting News: Phylicia Rashad to Play Lesbian Character; Denzel Re-teams With Training Day Co-Star
Actress Phylicia Rashad is returning to television in the upcoming CBS pilot For Justice, according to Variety. In it, the actress will play a lesbian woman named Georgina Howe, a Washington insider who's gone toe-to-toe with discrimination over her race and sexual orientation. If the pilot, directed by Ava DuVernay, goes to series, it will mark The Cosby Show matriarch's most recent return to TV since 2013's short-lived drama Do No Harm.
Variety also reports that Academy Award winner Denzel Washington is re-teaming with his Training Day costar Ethan Hawke in the upcoming movie The Magnificent Seven. The duo, who haven’t been paired together in over a decade, will trade in the mean streets of Los Angeles for the Wild, Wild West. Antoine Fuqua, who helmed Training Day, is slated to direct this remake of the 1960 original film.
In his second announced upcoming film, Hawke is also slated to star in the film biopic of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. Selma actress Carmen Ejogo has snagged the plum role of Baker’s partner, who supports his career comeback after he falls victim to a violent attack. With race as its cornerstone, it tells the story of a white music icon married to a mixed race woman who is trying to get the respect of Black idols like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. The movie is slated to make film festival rounds in 2016.
BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
(Photos from left: Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET, Brad Barket/BET/Getty Images)
