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Retired R&B vocalist Teyana Taylor is having a breakout year. While the Harlem native’s latest film A Thousand and One released to select theaters in late March, Taylor has been tapped to portray pop and soul singer Dionne Warwick in an upcoming biopic.
During a recent appearance on The Tamron Hall Show to promote A Thousand and One, Taylor confirmed the news.
“We’re in the building process right now,” Taylor explained. “I’ve always wanted to make sure like, I could lock in with any person that I would be playing, you know? How Angela and Tina [Turner] was, how Jamie Foxx and Ray Charles, you know what I’m saying? Like, to really get to know them and I miss when movies was like that, when you get to know them and tap in and just bond.”
Taylor added that she and 82-year-old Warwick talk “almost every day” and that she wants to retell the “Walk On By” singer’s life story in an appropriate manner.
“She’s had a wonderful career, you know, and I think right now it’s about making her feel as safe as possible so she can tell her story,” Taylor shared. “A lot of these stories get misconstrued or extremely dramatized to an extent and that’s not where we want to go.”
The casting comes years after Twitter users said that Taylor closely resembled Warwick, with the latter responding in 2020 that Taylor would be an obvious choice.
\u201c\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\ude4c\ud83c\udffe\u201d— TEYANA M.J. SHUMPERT (@TEYANA M.J. SHUMPERT) 1608152351
\u201cI\u2019ll call ya! \u260e\ufe0f\u201d— Dionne Warwick (@Dionne Warwick) 1608152167
Along with the Warwick biopic, Taylor will appear in the White Men Can't Jump remake, which is slated for a May 19 premiere on Hulu. Next, the 32-year-old actress will star in the drama epic The Book of Clarence alongside Lakeith Stanfield, Alfrie Woodard, James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, RJ Cyler and more.
