Sandra Bullock is slated to play Texas Senator Wendy Davis in the new movie Let Her Speak, Deadline exclusively reports.
The script was penned by Mario Correa and Bullock is set to play Davis as long as the production company finds a director that meets her approval. (Please oh please let this happen!)
Long before the hashtag #NeverthelessShePersisted went viral and was printed on t-shirts, Davis provided the perfect example of persistence. As a state senator, Davis made national headlines when she staged an 11-hour filibuster to block a bill that severely restricted abortion rights, as reported by The Washington Post in 2013.
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She later ran for governor of Texas, but Davis faced an uphill battle in the decidedly red state and lost the race to Republican Greg Abbott in November 2014.
According to Deadline, Let Her Speak will focus on the day of the filibuster as well as Davis' journey from teen mom to prominent politician. After a brief marriage, Davis and her first husband divorced when she was 21. In 2014, she appeared on Today and spoke about her time living in a mobile home while attending community college and working two jobs to support her young daughter.
"I knew I was poor because of the struggles that I and my young daughter, Amber, were experiencing," Davis told Maria Shriver. "I was having a really hard time making ends meet, paying for my childcare, paying for a car payment, paying rent and making sure that I kept the lights turned on. Sometimes, it didn't happen."
Davis eventually attended Texas Christian University on an academic scholarship, then went on to get her J.D. from Harvard. Her story is both empowering and inspiring, and Bullock excels at playing real-life characters (her role in The Blind Side earned her an Oscar).
Let's hope this project finds a director Bullock likes sooner rather than later, because I'm already clamouring to see Let Her Speak.
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