Directed by:
Dee ReesCinematography:
Jeffrey JurComposer:
Rachel PortmanCast:
Queen Latifah, Michael Kenneth Williams, Tika Sumpter, Oliver Platt, Bryan Greenberg, Khandi Alexander, Mike Epps, Charles S. Dutton, Mo'Nique, Tory Kittles (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Queen Latifah stars as legendary blues singer Bessie Smith in this HBO drama that focuses on Smith's transformation from a struggling young singer into one of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s and an enduring icon today. This HBO drama explores the remarkable career of the "Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah), whose immense talent and love for music took her from anonymity in the rough-and-tumble world of vaudeville to the 1920s blues scene and international fame. Accompanied by her brother Clarence, Bessie is mentored early on by blues legend Ma Rainey, who, like Bessie, enjoys the company of women. Bessie quickly becomes a rising star in Rainey's Black Bottom Revue, which creates friction between the two and leads to a parting of the ways. Undaunted, Bessie organizes her own show, writing songs, taking on male and female lovers, brawling, drinking, selling millions of records, and selling out theaters. Amidst a tumultuous relationship with husband/manager Jack Gee, Bessie's legend reaches mythic proportions after facing down the KKK at a show in North Carolina. Later, weathering the breakup of her marriage and the loss of an adopted child, Bessie's career stalls during the Great Depression. But true to her tenacious spirit and unapologetic style, Bessie reinvents herself and, after an inspirational reunion with Rainey and her true love, Richard, launches a successful comeback with the help of John Hammond, a blues and jazz devotee and producer. (HBO Europe)
(more)Cast
Queen Latifah
USA
Best movies:
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Chicago (2002)
The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Michael Kenneth Williams
USA
Best movies:
The Night Of (2016) (series)
When They See Us (2019) (series)
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Tika Sumpter
USA
Best movies:
Get on Up (2014)
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
Oliver Platt
Canada
Best movies:
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Benny & Joon (1993)
Bryan Greenberg
USA
Best movies:
Friends with Benefits (2011)
Prime (2005)
The Program (2015)
Khandi Alexander
USA
Best movies:
The Corner (2000) (series)
What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
A Chorus Line (1985)
Mike Epps
USA
Best movies:
The Hangover (2009)
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)
Soul Men (2008)
Charles S. Dutton
USA
Best movies:
Se7en (1995)
The Express (2008)
A Time to Kill (1996)
Tory Kittles
USA
Best movies:
Phone Booth (2002)
Tigerland (2000)
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
Todd Allen Durkin
Best movies:
Trial by Fire (2018)
Fly Me to the Moon (2024)
Step Up Revolution (2012)
Neko Parham
USA
Best movies:
The Corner (2000) (series)
42 (2013)
Ant-Man (2015)
Jeremie Harris
Best movies:
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
Adopt a Highway (2019)
Bessie (2015) (TV movie)
Adella Gautier
USA
Best movies:
Now You See Me (2013)
Runaway Jury (2003)
When the Game Stands Tall (2014)
L. Warren Young
Best movies:
The Blind Side (2009)
We Are Marshall (2006)
Trespass (1992)
Alkoya Brunson
USA
Best movies:
Hidden Figures (2016)
Bessie (2015) (TV movie)
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Whitney Goin
Best movies:
Trial by Fire (2018)
Letters to God (2010)
American Animals (2018)
Tia Hendricks
Best movies:
Bessie (2015) (TV movie)
Burden (2018)
You Can't Take My Daughter (2020) (TV movie)
Crystal Lee Brown
USA
Best movies:
Hidden Figures (2016)
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Bessie (2015) (TV movie)