“Scandal” star Khandi Alexander said the director of her latest film “Fahrenheit 451” wanted another person for her role: literary icon Toni Morrison.
“The director [Ramin Bahrani] told me, ‘I love you, but if I could have gotten Toni Morrison to play this role, I would have given it to her,’ and I said, ‘Let’s call her right now!’ I would want Toni to have this role so she could be immortalized.”
The film, which stars Michael B. Jordan and debuts on HBO Saturday, is set in a future dystopia set on eradicating history by banning and burning books. Of her most valuable book, Alexander said, “I have a Bible that was given to me by my friend Brenda, who you guys know as Lady Chablis [the iconic transgender queen, actress and performer]. She signed it, she kissed it, and she wrote a little poem in there for me. She is gone now, but that book means the world to me.”
Alexander and Lady Chablis appeared together in the 1999 TV movie “Partners.”