FKA Twigs Set to Portray Josephine Baker in New Biopic From ‘Cuties’ Director Maïmouna Doucouré
FKA Twigs is stepping into one of the most ambitious acting roles of her career, officially set to portray Josephine Baker in a new feature biopic about the groundbreaking entertainer, activist, and wartime heroine whose life reshaped 20th-century cultural history.
The project, which will be directed by Cuties filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, is scheduled to begin filming this fall, with Studiocanal backing and co-producing the feature. With the lead casting now formally confirmed, the studio is expected to introduce the film to international buyers at the Cannes market, positioning it as one of the more high-profile biographical projects currently in development.
For Twigs, the role marks a significant leap deeper into acting after years of establishing herself as one of contemporary music’s most visually distinctive and conceptually adventurous artists. While she has appeared on screen before, most recently in A24’s Mother Mary, portraying Josephine Baker places her at the center of a historical figure whose life demands an unusual range: performer, political symbol, wartime operative, civil rights activist, and international icon.
In a statement announcing the project, Twigs framed the role as both an artistic challenge and a personal honor: “I am honored to collaborate with the immensely talented Maïmouna Doucouré on this incredible project,” she said. “Josephine Baker’s extraordinary legacy is such an inspiration to me and to so many people around the world. She lives on in our hearts as a visionary, groundbreaking woman whose story is as powerful as it is relevant today.”
She added that she looks forward to portraying the full emotional and political complexity of Baker’s life, including her triumphs, struggles, and activism.
Born in St. Louis in 1906, Josephine Baker emerged from severe poverty and racial segregation in the United States before transforming herself into one of the most recognizable performers in Europe. After relocating to Paris in the 1920s, Baker became an international sensation, celebrated for her electrifying stage presence, unconventional performance style, and ability to disrupt racial and cultural norms in ways that would have been nearly impossible in America at the time.
During World War II, she worked with the French Resistance, reportedly using her celebrity status to move between diplomatic circles while assisting Allied intelligence efforts against Nazi Germany. Later, she became an outspoken civil rights advocate, aligning herself with the movement in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. She notably spoke at the 1963 March on Washington, standing alongside key civil rights leaders in military uniform.
That breadth makes Baker both an obvious and difficult biopic subject. The danger with figures of this scale is flattening them into iconography. “Josephine Baker has lived with me for years,” the filmmaker said in a statement. “Working on this film, I realize how modern, fearless, and complex she was.”
Rather than presenting Baker as a polished historical monument, Doucouré suggested the film will explore contradictions as much as accomplishments.
That perspective aligns with Doucouré’s broader body of work, which often focuses on identity, female autonomy, and social pressure through emotionally layered storytelling. Her involvement suggests the film may resist a conventional cradle-to-grave prestige biopic structure in favor of something more psychologically intimate.
The project is also being developed with support from Baker’s family, including her sons Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker, as well as members of the so-called Rainbow Tribe, the internationally adopted children Baker famously raised as part of her vision of multicultural coexistence.
The studio plans theatrical releases across its territories, including the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, and additional European markets.
