Watch The Darkness Of Fame Expose Itself In Lena Waithe’s ‘Beauty’

June 17, 2022

One of Debbie Allen’s most iconic quotes is “You want fame? Well, fame costs,” and she’s right. Actress and screenwriter Lena Waithe and filmmaker and photographer Andrew Dosunmu tackle the answer to this question in the forthcoming feature, Beauty.

Set around the 1980s music industry, Gracie Marie Bradley stars as the titular character, a singer on the rise struggling to maintain her sense of self after being offered a profitable recording deal. Beauty’s parents, played by Niecy Nash and Giancarlo Esposito, fret over the notion of her being “ready” for all associated with being in the limelight.

“Do you know what they do to stars? They build you up just so they can take you down,” Nash warns her onscreen daughter in the early moments of the film’s trailer. Confidently, Beauty refutes, “Can’t nobody tear me down, Mommy.”

Later, through a montage of scenes, Beauty expresses sincerely, “I don’t know how to sing Black, white. I just know how to sing, because that’s what I like to do. I just want to use the gift God gave me.”

Yet, despite her best intentions, her mother snaps her back into reality. “You won’t be real. You’ll be a fantasy,” says Nash. Her father, though, tries to convince her that Beauty may be far more than ready than anyone anticipated.

The Waithe-written, Dosunmu-directed drama, Beauty, premieres on June 29, exclusively on Netflix. Watch the trailer above.

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