Billy Porter has signed up to co-write and star in a James Baldwin biopic and recently addressed criticism of people doubting his talent.
During an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show, Porter hit back at critics saying, “First and foremost, the internet has created a space where it’s made people think that their opinion matters at all — it doesn’t. I am 53 years old and I’ve dedicated my life to my art and my craft. Question me at your own peril.”
Porter said that he is still at the beginning stages of writing the script with Dan McCabe.
“It’s alright. Call it whatever you want, arrogant… whatever you want. I’ve worked hard for this,” he continued. “And my mantra and I say it all the time, I do not now, nor will I ever, adjudicate my life or humanity in sound bites on social media. I’m going to focus on the work — that’s all I can do. People have been doubting me my whole life. This ain’t nothing new. None of it is new.”
During his interview on the Daytime show, Porter also talked about why it was important for him to make this film.
“James Baldwin and his work and what he represented in the world, everything, he’s one of the first people who I saw who looked like me, who represented me in the fullness: Black, queer, and present,” Porter said. “I’m alive because I was able to see him in my early 20s, and I met an English professor about a couple of years back who didn’t know who he was — an English professor, at a college, teaching English at a college, who didn’t know who James Baldwin was. This is unacceptable. It’s completely unacceptable.”
The film produced by Allen Media Group Motion Pictures will be based off of David Leeming’s 1994 book James Baldwin: A Biography.
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