The Kill Bill star is to play Anita Bryant in a forthcoming film about the singer, whose anti-gay stance and campaigning led her to be one of the first people to be publicly ‘Pied’.
Uma Thurman made the announcement about her forthcoming project in Cannes reported the Huffington Post.
‘She will play the role of Anita Bryant, the singer and orange juice spokeswoman who, after allowing a gay screenwriter into her home, confronts her past and her politics which had included successfully campaigning to overturn a gay rights law in Florida.’
The film, called Anita, will be directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffery Friedman, who won Oscars for the AIDS documentary, Stories From The Quilt and biography The Times Of Harvey Milk.
In 1977 after a ordinance was passed prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in Florida, Bryant led a high profile campaign to repeal the ordinance, stating:
What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. […] I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before.
Bryant suffered a fall out from her political activism – hurting her business and entertainment careers.
In a 1980 Ladies Home Journal interview, following her divorce and in the aftermath of her anti-gay activism, Bryant commented on her anti-gay views and said,
“I’m more inclined to say live and let live, just don’t flaunt it or try to legalize it.