Beyoncé will write and star in her own movie based on South Africa's “Hottentot Venus”
Apparently, Beyoncé is getting ready to diversify her portfolio and is setting her sights on winning an Oscar. She is planning on writing and starring in her own movie about Saartjie Baartman, a South African woman who was displayed in London freak shows during the 1800s and nicknamed “Hottentot Venus” because of her large butt.
According to reports, Beyoncé has recruited a ton of acting coaches and writers to help bring the legendary story of Saartjie Baartman to life. During her life as performer, Baartman was involved in a court case where she was forced to showcase her nude body parts against her will. However, she ended up losing the court case. Beyoncé plans on bringing moments like these to life in her new movie.
According to popular history, Saartjie Baartman (more commonly known as Sarah or Sara Baartman) was born in 1789 in the Gamtoos Valley of South Africa. When she was barely in her 20s, she was sold to London by a Scottish doctor named Alexander Dunlop. She spent 4 years in Britain being exhibited for her large buttocks.
Doctors thought she was sick and her treatment caught the attention of British abolitionists, who tried to rescue her on the grounds that they felt her performance was indecent and that she was being forced to perform against her will.
In 1814, after the doctor's death, she traveled to Paris. With two consecutive showmen, Henry Taylor and S. Reaux, she amused onlookers who frequented the Palais-Royal. She was subjected to examination by Georges Cuvier, a professor of comparative anatomy at the Museum of Natural History.
Later on in France, sideshows like the Hottentot Venus lost their appeal. Baartman lived on in poverty, and died in Paris of an undetermined inflammatory disease in December 1815.
After her death, Cuvier dissected her body, then displayed her remains. For more than a century and a half, visitors to the Museum of Man in Paris could view her brain, skeleton and genitalia until she was buried.
Sources close to The Sun report Beyoncé is trying to take acting seriously. She believes that writing a screenplay and taking on the leading will allow her to gain respect in the film industry. Sources also note she's been doing a lot of research through books on Baartman, and wants to make sure she tells her story the right way.
Beyoncé has not announced when we will see this new movie or when casting for supporting roles will be announced. But as an accomplished singer, we know that she will be striving for perfection to win an Oscar some day.
