The American pop star is to portray the late English singer Cilla Black, with whom Warwick had a short-lived rivalry in the '60s.
Lady GaGa is to portray the late Cilla Black in a new biopic movie about the life of R&B singer Dionne Warwick, it was announced at a press conference this morning at the Cannes Film Festival.
The movie, titled simply Dionne and based on Warwick’s 2010 autobiography ‘My Life, As I See It’, was unveiled on Friday morning (May 13th) at the French festival by the star herself. Former Destiny’s Child member LeToya Luckett will play the lead role, with Gaga portraying the English singer, whom Warwick described as her “nemesis” in the press conference.
Lady Gaga is to play Cilla Black in a movie about Dionne Warwick's life
Gaga has won praise and awards for her role in ‘American Horror Story’, and has also appeared in the Sin City sequel A Dame To Kill For. Asked about the slightly unexpected choice of selection for the role – let’s be honest, who would have predicted Gaga for this? – Warwick said: “Why not? It was just an easy choice and she wanted to do it.”
Warwick, 75, has spent very nearly six decades in the music industry and is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist in Billboard history, but comparatively little is known about her personal life.
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Explaining the significance of the English singer Cilla Black and why there was a ‘nemesis’ tag bandied about, Warwick said: “She stole my music, and I was not a very happy camper about that… …over the years, we grew up and understood each other. It all got cleared away.”
She was also at pains to emphasise that Black, who passed away at her holiday home in Spain in August last year, won’t be portrayed as a “villainess” in the finished movie.
Danny Glover is to play her father Lee Warwick, while Olympia Dukakis is to portray German-American singer Marlene Dietrich, whom Warwick has always described as her ‘mentor’.
“This is my 57th year in this business, and I have been asked ‘When are you gonna let us know about this? Tell us about that?’” she said about the upcoming project and what she hoped people would get from it. “So it’s finally at the point where instead of what you think you know about Dionne Warwick, now you will know.”
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