Gabrielle Union says that she'd want Ryan Destiny or Coco Jones to play her in a biopic about her life. If the story were to take place at an older age, she'd go with Ashanti or Janet Jackson. Union discussed the hypothetical casting during a recent interview with Hello Beautiful. For the piece, Union spoke with the creator of the MeToo movement, Tarana Burke.
“I think young me would be somewhere between Ryan Destiny, Coco Jones,” Gabrielle Union said when asked for a casting. “And then older me? I’d say Janet. Maybe Ashanti could play me in my 30s, early 40s—and then Miss Janet.”
Gabrielle Union's "Hello Beautiful" Cover
The interview comes amid Union's appearance in season three of Apple TV+’s true crime drama Truth Be Told. The iconic actress plays Eva, a high school principal driven by raising awareness for missing Black girls in her community. Speaking with the outlet, Union explained that she was looking to take on more light-hearted roles at the time she was cast. However, she says that she trusts Octavia Spencer, who stars in the series, and decided to take on the role for her.
"After The Inspection tapped into darkness in me, I wasn’t prepared to confront it (in a healthy way). I was still reeling and unwinding from that. I was like, ‘I can’t do any more darkness, but I can coast through some comedies, so please let’s concentrate on comedies for 2022,'" Union recalled.
She continued: "My team was like, ‘I know you want to concentrate on comedies but we have this offer to do season three of Truth Be Told with Octavia. We know you guys are friends, but we just think this subject matter is something you might be interested in.’ Octavia must have hit me right after that, and we talked a bit. We have been trying to work together again for over 20 years. I trust her in a way that I don’t trust most people in this town in our industry, which is saying a lot. So if I was gonna do it, it would need to be with someone I trust, like Octavia."
[Via]