Bessie (2015) on Netflix
TV-MA20151h 47mBiographyDramaMusic
Bessie Smith scrapes by with her brother Clarence on the vaudeville circuit in Chattanooga, where producers will not book dark-skinned Black women. She asks Ma Rainey for a place in her show.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/105,153 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Bessie Smith grows up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, orphaned with her siblings and raised by her older sister Viola, and her childhood is unhappy. Bessie and her brother Clarence earn what they can from local vaudeville shows, but producers refuse to put dark-skinned Black women on their stages, so her ambitions go nowhere. She climbs into the train compartment of the traveling performer Ma Rainey and persuades her to take her on. Ma Rainey coaches her voice, and the two women travel together until Bessie's growing popularity pulls them apart. Bessie sets out with Clarence to build a show of her own, begins a relationship with the security guard Jack Gee, and keeps her lover Lucille in her life.
Cast
- Kamryn Johnsonas Young Bessie
- Rikki McKinneyas Chorus Guy
- Alan T. Colemanas Stagehand
- Clay Chappellas '81' Theatre Owner
- Sharan C. Mansfieldas Miss Taylor
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bessie (2015)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In the early 1990s, when producers Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck were considering taking over the film, biographer Chris Albertson suggested Queen Latifah for the lead role of Bessie Smith. The project then lay dormant because financing could not be found.
- The script and film rights to Bessie passed to playwright Horton Foote's daughter, actress Hallie Foote, after his death in 2009; she took the project to the Zanucks and HBO, and press releases claim the film was 22 years in the making.
- Playwright Horton Foote wrote the first draft of Bessie when Columbia Pictures was slated to produce it, but the project died when the studio became caught up in a financial irregularity that threatened its existence. Foote bought his screenplay back from Columbia and acquired the film rights from biographer Chris Albertson.
- As of 2016, Bessie remained the most watched HBO original movie of all time, drawing 1.34 million viewers and a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demo.
