Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorIn George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” tensions rise as Ma Rainey, played by Academy Award winner Viola Davis and her ambitious trumpet player, Levee, played by Chadwick Boseman.Based on the August Wilson play of the same name, it was down to Ruben Santiago-Hudson to adapt the two-act play for the screen.Rather than make audiences wait to meet the film’s title character, Santiago-Hudson made a notable shift, and Ma makes a grand entrance, minutes into the film.
He explains, “We wanted to show Ma as her most powerful and dynamic self. Her temple was the show tents of the southern United States.
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