Big Showtime role for Precious star
Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe is going from Harlem to Connecticut in her next show-biz project.
Sidibe, who received an Academy Award nomination for her role in “Precious,” has inked a deal to become a recurring character on “The Big C,” Showtime’s upcoming dark comedy series.
Sidibe, who guest-starred in the show’s pilot episode, will play a student in the show — which revolves around a suburban Connecticut housewife and mother, Cathy (Laura Linney), who throws caution to the wind after learning she has terminal cancer.
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(It sounds like a variation of sorts on AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” also produced by Sony Pictures Television.)
Oliver Platt will play her “immature but well-meaning husband,” according to a Showtime press release.
The half-hour series, created and written by Darlene Hunt, is scheduled to begin shooting in May and will premiere later this summer with Linney as one of its executive producers.
Showtime has ordered 13 episodes.
In “Precious,” Sidibe, a 26-year-old Brooklyn native, plays a 16-year-old Harlem woman who’s been physically and sexually abused by her father.
Although she didn’t win an Oscar for “Precious,” Sidibe did win an Independent Spirit Award as Best Actress earlier this week, while “Precious” won as Best Picture.
Sidibe will also be seen later this year in the indie flick, “Yelling to the Sky,” co-starring Tim Blake Nelson.
She’ll play Latonya Williams, one of three inner-city sisters.
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