Kid Cudi has announced that he will star as Jean-Michel Basquiat in Jean, a film about the artist that he wrote and will direct. The announcement was made Wednesday, October 21, in a post on Instagram.
In the post, Cudi said that for years people had asked him about playing Basquiat, but no project came to be. “This year, I finally said fuck it, ima write it myself,” he wrote. He said he did a wardrobe test and had a wig made, noting that the wig was a rough version and not the final look. He also shared a first look at himself as the artist.
Cudi said writing a film about a real person was a challenge he welcomed, citing extensive research, books and conversations with people who knew Basquiat. He described the film as “a love letter to Jean, the 80s and NY city.”
About Basquiat
Basquiat rose to prominence in the 1980s with raw art and powerful paintings, many of which addressed class and race issues in America. He died of a drug overdose in 1988 at age 27.
Cudi’s Recent Work
Cudi has appeared in Happy Gilmore 2, House Party, X, Maxxxine and Pearl, and helmed the Netflix rom-com Entergalactic in 2022. He is also slated to make his directorial debut with a film titled Doe and will star alongside Barbie Ferreira in the upcoming horror film Wrong Number.
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Source: Billboard
