It’s the holiday season! We must have been extra good this year because Santa has gifted us some extraordinary news that has us giddy with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads. Or, maybe not sugarplums, but visions of our favorite Disney princess gracing our television screens along with our most hated Ugandan dictator. Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose and Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker are part of the all-star cast that just wrapped filming the A&E miniseries remake of Alex Haley’s multi-generational drama “Roots.”
In the series, a ratings sensation when it first aired in January 1977 over an eight-day period, Rose will play “Kizzy, “ the “cherished, smart daughter of Kunta Kinte who maintains her family pride and warrior spirit.” And, Whitaker will play Fiddler, a slave who risks his life trying to mentor and aid in the escape of “Kunta Kinte.” Leslie Uggams and Louis Gossett, Jr., originated those roles, respectively, in the 1977 miniseries.
Rose and Whitaker join previously announced cast members Laurence Fishburne, Anna Paquin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chad L. Coleman, Erica Tazel, Derek Luke, Clifford “T.I.” Harris, Jr., Mekhi Phifer, along with newcomers Malachi Kirby and Regé-Jean Page.
Although the remake doesn’t have an air date yet, it’s scheduled to run as an eight-hour, four-night miniseries, and will air on the History Channel, A&E and Lifetime.
As if seeing Rose in “Roots” wasn’t enough, it was recently announced that she’ll join the cast of the highly-rated Starz drama series “Power” next season. She’s slated to play “LaVerne Thomas” a streetwise cop from the neighborhood where Ghost and Tommy grew up in a multi-episode storyline. “Power” stars Omari Hardwick and Naturi Naughton.
Rose is a stage veteran who won a Tony Award for her role in the Tony Kushner-Jeanine Tesori musical Caroline, Or Change and was nominated for her role as “Beneatha Younger” in the 2014 revival of A Raisin In The Sun. However, she may best be known for her role as “Princess Tiana” in Disney’s “The Princess And The Frog” and as Lorell in the film adaptation of “Dreamgirls.”
