Janelle Monáe has signed on to Julie Taymor’s Gloria Steinem biopic as Dorothy Pitman Hughes, the activist who co-founded Ms. magazine with Steinem in 1972.
Based on Steinem’s memoir, The Glorias: A Life On The Road will also star Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander as Steinem at different ages. According to Deadline, “The Glorias will follow Steinem’s journey to become a crusader for equal rights and her groundbreaking work as a journalist and campaigner.”
Monáe, who won acclaim for her on-screen debut in Moonlight, has been vocal about her low tolerance for male fuckery and oppression generally; at the Grammy Awards earlier this year, she was the only presenter to namecheck the Time’s Up movement. This makes her a natural fit to play Hughes, whose activism included raising bail money for civil rights protesters, pioneering childcare, and organizing the first shelter for battered women in New York City, in addition to working with Steinem to found Ms.
Beyond The Glorias, Monáe is also involved in an upcoming Harriet Tubman biopic and will appear alongside Steve Carell, Diane Krueger, and Leslie Mann in the Robert Zemeckis drama Welcome to Marwen later this month. Good—the more Monáe, the better.