FAST COLOR (2018) Director & Cast
Julia Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lorraine Toussaint, David Strathairn, Saniyya Sidney
JULIA HART, GUGU MBATHA-RAW, LORRAINE TOUSSAINT, DAVID STRATHAIRN, SANIYYA SIDNEY
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR & CAST
JULIA HART is the co-founder (with her husband, producer & writer Jordan Horowitz) of the film and television production company Original Headquarters. Most recently, Julia write and directed STARGIRL for Disney, starring Grace Vanderwall and based on the best-selling book by Jerry Spinelli. Her feature debut MISS STEVENS, starring Lily Rabe, Timothee Chalamet, Lili Reinhart and Rob Huebel, premiered in competition at SXSW 2016, where it won a Special Jury Prize for Best Actress for star Lily Rabe, and was later released by the Orchard. FAST COLOR, her second feature starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lorraine Toussaint and David Strathairn, premiered at SXSW 2018 and will be released by Lionsgate/Codeblack in April 2019. Her debut screenplay THE KEEPING ROOM landed on the 2012 Black List and was made into a feature directed by Daniel Barber (HARRY BROWN) and starring Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld and Sam Worthington. The film premiered at TIFF in 2014 and was released by Drafthouse Films.
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GUGU MBATHA-RAW will next be seen in 'Fast Color' which will be released by on April 19 by Codeblack/Lionsgate. The thriller, directed by Julia Hart, is from 'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz and 'Jackie' producers Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon.
Her next film, 'Farming,' in which she stars with Kate Beckinsale and Damon Idris, will be released by Lionsgate UK this summer.
On November 1, Gugu will be seen in 'Motherless Brooklyn,' alongside Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Alec Baldwin and Bruce Willis. The Warner Bros film was written and directed by Norton.
Gugu's past films include the Disney's smash hit, the live-action film 'Beauty and the Beast' which was the highest grossing film in 2017 taking in over $1.2 billion worldwide. In 2018, she starred alongside Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Minday Kaling, Chris Pine and Storm Reid in Disney's hit 'A Wrinkle in Time,' directed by Ava DuVernay. She then starred in the J.J. Abrams'-produced 'The Cloverfield Paradox,' and 'Irreplaceable You,' alongside Michiel Huisman, Christopher Walken and Steve Coogan, both on Netflix. In 2016, she received rave reviews for her starring role in 'San Junipero,' an episode in Netflix's acclaimed series 'Black Mirror.' Gugu received multiple award nominations for her roles in the critically acclaimed films 'Belle' and 'Beyond the Lights' in 2014
Gugu has completed production on 'Come Away', starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Michael Caine and David Gyasi, and 'Summerland,' the second world-war drama starring with Tom Courtenay and Penelope Wilton from director Jessica Swale.
She recently wrapped production on 'Misbehaviour' starring with Keira Knightley and Jessie Buckley for Left Bank Pictures. Philappa Lowthorpe ('The Crown') directed the film.
She is currently in production on Apple TV's untitled morning-show drama series starring with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Billy Crudup and Mark Duplass.
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SAG Award winner and NAACP Image Award nominee LORRAINE TOUSSAINT most notably shocked audiences as the viciously seductive inmate "Vee" on the second season of the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Toussaint's epically thrilling performance won her glowing reviews from the likes of TV Guide and Vanity Fair, and a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Critics Choice TV Awards. Toussaint also received praise for her performances in the Academy Award-nominated feature film Selma and her starring role in the ABC fantasy/drama series Forever.
Toussaint currently leads the ensemble cast of NBC's drama The Village. She plays Patricia, a warm, vivacious grandmother figure and social worker who, unable to have her own children, became a caretaker for everyone around her. She also stars in season three of AMC's Into The Badlands and can be heard as the voice of "Shadow Weaver" in Netflix's animated series She-Ra and The Princess of Power, which returns for its second season in April.
In film, Toussaint will co-star in the upcoming sci-fi thriller Fast Color, which is set for release in April. Directed by Julia Hart, the film premiered at South by Southwest in 2018 to critical acclaim. She can also be seen in Guillermo del Toro's upcoming horror film Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, which is slated for theatrical release in August 2019. Toussaint is currently in production on the upcoming Gloria Steinem bio pic entitled The Glorias, based on Steinem's memoir. She will portray the iconic feminist and civil right activist Flo Kennedy, opposite Julianne Moore.
No stranger to the silver screen, Toussaint's first film role was opposite Burt Reynolds in the Crime comedy Breaking In. She has also appeared in Dangerous Minds, the Soloist, and Ava DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere, which garnered her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female. Additional film credits include Sprinter, Universal Pictures' Girls Trip, the Seth Rogen comedy The Night Before, and Lionsgate's Love Beats Rhyme.
In television, Toussaint most recently starred in Fox's police procedural drama Rosewood. Among her many additional TV credits are recurring roles on NBC's Friday Night Lights, TNT's Saving Grace, Dick Wolf's Law & Order, ABC's Ugly Betty, and ABC's The Fosters. She has also had several guest appearances on hit television shows including CSI: Crime Investigation, ABC's Grey's Anatomy, ABC's Scandal opposite Kerry Washington and most recently Netflix's Grace and Frankie.
Toussaint spent the first 12 years of her career acting on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles. Her first television appearance was in 1983 in The Face of Rage. Toussaint's biggest career boost came from her co-starring role opposite Annie Potts in the TV series Any Day Now, which earned her an NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series and the Wiley A. Branton Award for the National Bar Association.
Born in Trinidad, Toussaint and her mother moved to Brooklyn, NY when she was ten years old. An early interest in acting led to her enrollment in New York's renowned High School of Performing Arts, followed by the prestigious Julliard School's drama division where she graduated with a Bachelor's in Fine Arts degree. On her graduation day, she landed her first paying job as Lady MacBeth with Shakespeare & Company.
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DAVID STRATHAIRN won the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and earned Best Actor nominations from the Academy, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and Independent Spirit Awards for his compelling portrait of legendary CBS news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's Oscar-nominated drama "Good Night, and Good Luck." He won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in the HBO project "Temple Grandin" in 2011 and was nominated in 2012 for his portrayal of John Dos Passos in HBO's "Hemingway and Gellhorn."
His 2005 Independent Spirit nomination was the fourth in a stellar career that dates back to his 1980 motion picture debut in John Sayles's first film, "The Return of the Secaucus Seven." Strathairn subsequently collaborated with Sayles on seven titles, winning the IFP honor for his supporting performance in "City of Hope," while collecting two additional nominations for "Passion Fish" and "Limbo."
Strathairn has continued a busy screen career with co-starring roles in several critically acclaimed films, including Tim Robbins's directorial debut, "Bob Roberts"; Penny Marshall's "A League of Their Own"; "Losing Isaiah"; Sydney Pollack's "The Firm"; "Sneakers"; Taylor Hackford's adaptation of the Stephen King novel "Dolores Claiborne"; and Jodie Foster's "Home for the Holidays"; as well as two projects with Curtis Hansen: "The River Wild" and the Oscar-winning "L.A. Confidential," in which Strathairn shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with the all-star ensemble cast. He will next be seen in the AMC/BBC eight-part drama "McMafia."
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From a young age, destiny seemed to call upon SANIYYA SIDNEY to work with some of the most respected actors and directors in the industry. Her first role was iconic. Filming five weeks in New Orleans, she played "Young Kizzy" in the new adaptation of Alex Haley's "Roots." She instantly bonded and formed an incredible artistic partnership with her director Mario Van Peeples.
Next she was off to Atlanta on another historic project. Playing Taraji P. Henson's daughter in the feature "Hidden Figures." The film also stars Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner. Taking place in the 1960's, it tells true story of the three African American mathematicians who computed the trajectory for the first Apollo missions into space and moon landing.
Next she received the call that can catapult the trajectory of a career. It was from Denzel Washington who cast her as his and Viola Davis' daughter in the film "Fences." Another period piece, this one taking place in the 1950's. Mr. Washington directs the story adapted from the August Wilson play, in which he and Ms. Davis reprise their Tony winning roles.
In 2016, she attended the Oscars for the first time for both "Hidden Figures" & "Fences."
The next person who knocked at the door was the incomparable Ridley Scott. Saniyya was cast in the lead of Amy Bellafonte in the series "The Passage." It is a role that she will forever treasure. And is thrilled to be back with her FOX family.
