Congratulations are in order for the cast and crew of Lee Daniels’ The Butler. The film topped this weekend’s Box Office and blew its second place predictions out of the water bringing in $25 million and crushing its competition.
An awesome achievement for a film whose cast boasts some of the best in professional Black theatre. We could not be any happier or prouder.
Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Academy Award nominated-Broadway producer Oprah Winfrey (The Color Purple) lead this cast of brilliant artists as Cecil and Gloria Gaines.
David Oyelowo is Louis Gaines the eldest, headstrong, son of Cecil and Gloria. Oyelowo is a British actor who began his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was the first Black actor to play an English king in a major Shakespearean production.
Tony Award nominee Colman Domingo (The Scottsboro Boys, Passing Strange) is the reluctant maître d’ Freddie Fallows. He brings a smile to our faces each time he appears onscreen. We adore him.
Tony Award winner Adriane Lenox (Doubt, Kiss Me Kate) is Gina, the wife of Terrence Howard‘s adulterous character Howard. We absolutely loved the pairing of these two actors. Terrence Howard made his Broadway debut in the all Black cast of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2008.
Tony Award nominee Clarence Williams III (Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, The Long Dream) makes an appearance as Maynard, the man responsible for Cecil’s White House appointment.
Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Jerry McGuire) is comic relief as head butler Carter Wilson. Cuba is currently making his Broadway debut with Tony Award winner Cicely Tyson in The Trip to Bountiful.
We hope the success of The Butler creates even more opportunities for Black theatre artists to thrive on the silver screen just as they have on The Great White Way.
