Billy Porter is in talks to play Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, according to reports. Did someone say EGOT?
Billy Porter attends Walt Disney Television Emmy Party on September 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Leon Bennett/Getty)
Billy Porter is reportedly in line to play Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother in an upcoming big-screen musical adaptation.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Pose and Kinky Boots star is currently in talks to sign on to the Sony Pictures musical adaptation of Cinderella.
The outlet reports that Porter would join a cast that former Fifth Harmony singer Camila Cabello, set to play the lead role of Cinderella.
The project, which is being produced by James Corden, is described as a modern re-imagining of the classic fairy tale.
The Pose star is on his way to an EGOT.
Porter’s pivot to cinema comes after he picked up an Emmy for his acclaimed portrayal of Pray Tell in trans ballroom drama Pose.
The actor previously won a Tony Award in 2013 for his role as drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots, also receiving Grammy Award for the show’s soundtrack – putting him just one Oscar away from becoming the first out queer person of colour to achieve EGOT status.
And if ‘Fairy Godmother Billy Porter’ doesn’t have an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor written all over it, we don’t know what does.
Billy Porter attends the 71st Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 22, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (David Crotty/Patrick McMullan via Getty)
Speaking at the Emmy Awards in September, he told the crowd: “The category is love, y’all, love!”
He referenced the American American playwright and activist James Baldwin in his acceptance speech, explaining: “James Baldwin said, it took many years of vomiting up all the filth that I had been taught about myself, and halfway believed, before I was could walk around this earth like I had the right to be here.
“I have the right, you have the right ― we all have the right!
“We, as artists, are the people who that get to change the molecular structure of the hearts and minds of the people who live on this planet. Please don’t ever stop doing that. Please don’t ever stop telling the truth.”
Billy Porter: Queer people of colour face award discrimination.
The actor previously said queer actors of colour face a “double layer” of discrimination when it comes to be passed up for major roles.
Speaking at a Hollywood Reporter roundtable, he said: “It’s the layer of being a person of colour in this industry, and the other layer of being a queen.
“No one can see you as anything else,” he said. “If ‘Flamboyantly…’ wasn’t in the description of the character, no one would see me ever, for anything, which wouldn’t be so enraging if it went the other direction, but it doesn’t.
“Straight men playing gay, everyone wants to give them an award. Thank you for gracing us with your straight presence. That gets tiresome.”
