Billy Porter Is Channeling His 'Rage' To Play James Baldwin In Upcoming Biopic

Pose Alum Billy Porter’s new role is writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin in a biopic that has no name yet.

The actor and Allen Media Group, the team behind bringing the story to life announced that Porter has officially signed on to play the celebrated author. Porter will also flex his writing muscle and co-write the screenplay with Dan McCabe.

The screenplay will be based on James Baldwin: A Biography, written by author David Leeming. Porter expressed his excitement to The Hollywood Report, “As a Black queer man on this planet with relative consciousness, I find myself, like James Baldwin said, ‘in a rage all the time.’”

He continues, “I am because James was. I stand on James Baldwin's shoulders, and I intend to expand his legacy for generations to come.” This is a performance that smells like an Academy Award nomination.

Porter doesn’t lend his name to just any body of work and while he solidified his stance as a Broadway star, Porter has also managed to be successful in TV and film as well.

The multifaceted actor is one award away from being an EGOT holder. Porter has a Tony Award for his 2013 performance in Kinky Boots he was also on the album and won a Grammy that same year for that recording.

In 2019, he was nominated for and subsequently won an Emmy Award, for his performance as Pray Tell in FX's Pose. Oddly enough Porter spoke of and quoted Baldwin back in 2019 when he won that Emmy.

Either he already knew he was going to play this role or he has been manifesting this and that was one of the moments he used to put it out into the universe! His speech drew the crowd’s attention.

“James Baldwin said, ‘took many year 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.’"

Porter equated this to himself and repeated, “I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right.”

The production company also shared their praise for the casting and getting the film underway. “We at Allen Media Group Motion Pictures are extremely passionate about sharing James Baldwin's phenomenal story with the world,” said Barry Allen a producer and co-owner of the company.

“Billy Porter and Dan McCabe's talent and commitment to amplifying James Baldwin's legacy and contributions are invaluable and unmatched for this unique and epic story.”

Baldwin’s popular works include Go Tell It On The Mountain, an autobiography about his childhood being raised by a strict religious family.

If Beale Street Could Talk, is one of Baldwin's works that was turned into a film in 2018 starring Regina King, KiKi Layne, and Brian Tyree Henry. A young couple fights for him to be released from prison after being accused of a crime he didn’t commit by a racist police officer.

The film did well at the box office, we suspect that Allen Media Group is for the same result.