Brie Larson has a knack for playing complex female characters — from the rebellious teen daughter of a woman with dissociative identity disorder in United States of Tara, to a supervisor at a home for troubled teens in Short Term 12, to a woman escaping 12 years of captivity in Room, to a superhero in the upcoming Captain Marvel. Now, she’s adding a new character to that list: Victoria Woodhull, the first-ever woman to run for president.
Woodhull was a suffragist who ran for president in 1872 — more than 40 years before women had the right to vote. She was involved in the spiritualist movement, she was the first woman to run a brokerage firm on Wall Street, and she and her sister were some of the first women to run a newspaper. As you can tell, she was an incredibly interesting woman who many people don’t know about.
Victoria Woodhull by Mathew Brady, c. 1870
Via Deadline, Amazon Studios has acquired a biopic about Woodhull called Victoria Woodhull. Ben Kopit will write the script, and Larson will produce the film along with Whalerock Industries’ Lloyd Braun and Andrew Mittman. Anne Woodward will executive produce. Amazon’s Julie Rappaport and Jules Claassen are overseeing with John-Eric Capps.
Larson has ventured behind the camera a few times. She is directing, producing, and starring in an independent comedy called Unicorn Store, slated for release later this year. She also co-directed and co-wrote two short films, 2012’s “The Arm” and 2011’s “Weighting.”
In a recent Instagram post about her current movie Kong: Skull Island, in which she plays a journalist, Larson said that she chooses her films to share a message.
“I make movies as a form of activism,” she wrote. “I believe we learn from what we see in our leaders.”
Top photo: Trainwreck
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