Ava DuVernay’s upcoming adaptation of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents has just added Niecy Nash-Betts, Jasmine Cephas Jones, and a list of others actors to the film.
The group, which also includes Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, joins Academy Award-nominee Aunjanue Ellis, who has the lead role. DuVernay is writing, directing, and producing alongside frequent collaborator Paul Garnes. The ESSENCE Black Women In Hollywood recipient was brought on to star in Caste, earlier this month.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s novel is an exploration of racism in the United States through the prism of social, economic and cultural factors; and was a New York Times best-seller and an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Caste has been filming for several weeks in Savannah, Georgia.
Nash-Betts – who joins the cast just a few weeks removed from a Critics Choice Award win for her performance as Glenda Cleveland in Dahmer: Monster – is reuniting with DuVernay after she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for her role in the Netflix limited series When They See Us. She also stars in ABC’s The Rookie: Feds.
Jones is most known for her portrayal of both Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds in the Tony-winning Broadway hit Hamilton. She also produces and stars in Starz’s Blindspotting, reprising the role of Ashley Rose from the 2018 film.
Caste is financed by J4A with sales handled by CAA. Along with filming in rural Georgia, DuVernay’s feature plans to shoot in Germany and India later on this year.
