FKA twigs Transforms Into Josephine Baker for Studiocanal's Sprawling Biopic

By Elena Vasquez

FKA twigs began her transformation into Josephine Baker at 4 a.m. on a crisp October day in the Bois de Vincennes, on the outskirts of Paris. By afternoon, the British singer and dancer — in a cream pinstriped coat, dark beret and black leather gloves — was filming a cemetery confrontation with Oscar-nominated actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who plays Baker's mother. The scene sits at the heart of Maïmouna Doucouré's ambitious biopic, "Josephine Baker," which wraps filming this week in France and Sofia, Bulgaria.

The production has enlisted some 2,400 extras, notably for sequences recreating the Folies Bergère cabaret, where Baker became a sensation in the 1920s. Yet Doucouré insists the film is an intimate portrait, not a pageant.

What drives the director's vision?

"What's most important to me is not simply portraying Josephine as this powerful woman, this icon who was inducted into the Panthéon," Doucouré, the Sundance-winning filmmaker of "Cuties" and "Hawa," said during lunch with the crew. "I want to tell the story of the woman behind the icon."

The narrative anchors itself in Baker's 1951 return to the United States, where the performer who had found fame and freedom in France confronted the racial segregation she had fled. Flashbacks cover her childhood in St. Louis, her rise in 1920s Paris, her work with the French Resistance during World War II and her later years.

The numbers behind the film are substantial: four years in development, at least 16 previous failed attempts by other production companies, and a project circulating at Canal+ for more than a decade. Baker herself, who died in 1975, tried to develop a film about her life as far back as 1968.

"At the beginning, Maïmouna and I thought we might be a little smarter than everybody else, but we very quickly realized what we'd gotten ourselves into. It was Everest," said Zangro, Doucouré's partner and co-producer through their Bien ou Bien Productions. Studiocanal co-produces, finances and handles international sales.

How did FKA twigs land the role?

Doucouré auditioned candidates in London, New York and Los Angeles, insisting on seeing each one sing, dance and perform a demanding dramatic scene — regardless of fame. FKA twigs was among the first she saw.

"I literally started crying because suddenly I was seeing Josephine Baker," Doucouré recalled. "I completely forgot that I had written the scene. I forgot that I was sitting in an audition room."

The role demands acting, singing and dancing across several decades, plus French — a language FKA twigs did not previously know — and multiple American accents. Her screen credits include "Honey Boy," "The Crow" and A24's "Mother Mary," but she has never carried a feature of this magnitude.

"The challenge wasn't just to reproduce her movements or her voice," Doucouré said. "It was to understand what made her performances so singular and then make them feel alive rather than imitated."

Where and how was it shot?

The production shot entirely in Europe because, as Zangro put it, "The United States has become too expensive for filming." Backlots in Sofia, Bulgaria recreate Harlem and Broadway, while a parking lot in Saint-Denis became a street in 1918 St. Louis. Production designer Stéphane Rosenbaum ("Moulin") conjured 1920s Paris and 1950s Miami, using LED screens for hotel-suite exteriors.

Costume designer Emmanuelle Youchnovski ("The Substance," "Dalida") made everything from scratch. "We made the hats, the shoes, even the buttons," she said. The production tapped Chanel artisans, commissioned Indian embroidery workshops and enlisted Faubourg 22-11, the atelier behind the yellow coat in "The Substance." Adapting Baker's iconic banana skirt to FKA twigs' athletic physique was, she said, "a real challenge."

For Doucouré, the skirt also carries historical weight. "You can't separate the banana skirt from the colonial stereotypes of that time," she said. "But what fascinates me is what Josephine did within those constraints. She found ways to play with those stereotypes and sometimes even turn them to her advantage."

The screenplay, co-written with Olivier Lorelle ("Days of Glory"), draws on years of research and the blessing of Baker's sons, Jean-Claude and Brian Bouillon Baker, and her Rainbow Tribe of adopted children. The cast includes Giuseppe Maggio, Grégory Montel, Benjamin Millepied, Féodor Atkine, Alex Lutz and Harmony Raine Riley.

Studiocanal will distribute in France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand, and handle worldwide sales. "It's not a French film made for the international market. It's an international film in every respect," Zangro said — positioning the film for the broadest rollout of Doucouré's career.