Regina King's film about U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm's historic 1972 presidential campaign will debut on Netflix two weeks after "Super Tuesday" balloting for the 2024 presidential race.
Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party's nomination for president, is portrayed by King, the Oscar- and Emmy-winning actress. Shirley was written and directed by John Ridley, an Oscar winner for his 12 Years A Slave screenplay.
Shirley was filmed from December 2021 to early 2022 in Cincinnati, where King, a Los Angeles native, spent a lot of her childhood with her mother and grandmother, according to King's 1998 Cincinnati Enquirer interview with reporter Margaret McGurk. King's mother, Cincinnati native Gloria King, moved back to the Mount Healthy area in the early 1990s to be closer to her mother, according to the Enquirer story.
When King announced the project in February 2021, Variety said the story provides "an intimate, behind-the-scenes portrait of one of the most ground-breaking political leaders of our time." Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1968, served seven terms in the House. She died in 2005 at age 80.
Shirley also stars Terrence Howard, Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, Dorian Missick, Amirah Vann, W. Earl Brown and Brad James, according to the Internet Movie Database. King and her younger sister, Reina King, are producers on the film.
Regina King told Entertainment Weekly Tuesday why the film will be released in March at the peak of the presidential primaries.
"Instead of trying to release it during any normal cycle, we thought, wouldn't it be more impactful to release it during a presidential election year? As a team, we felt that is probably the best way we could possibly honor Shirley: to release her in a space that she created for herself," King said.
Shirley is the second film produced here by Participant, which won best picture Academy Awards for Spotlight and Green Book, and shot Dark Waters here in 2019 starring Mark Ruffalo as Cincinnati attorney Robert Bilott.
In the 2021 Participant release announcing the film Ridley praised King for her "passion for bringing a complete and very human portrait of Shirley to life… I'm very thankful to both Regina and Reina trusting me to partner in telling the story of this truly remarkable individual."
King said in 2021 that "Shirley Chisholm's fearless determination has been an inspiration to so many of us, and with this film we hope to inspire many generations to come."
Some area residents might be seen in the film. Casting director D. Lynn Meyers posted nine casting calls for roles, including paid extras, in November and December two years ago. Some interior scenes were filmed at WCET-TV.
King began her career as a child actress on NBC's 227 sitcom in 1985 starring Marla Gibbs, Hal Williams and Jackee Harry. In addition to her Oscar for If Beale Street Could Talk in 2018, King has four Emmys for Watchman, Seven Seconds and two for American Crime. She was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe for her directorial debut, One Night In Miami, but did not win.
