Sandra Bullock to play politician Wendy Davis in ‘Let Her Speak’

Sandra Bullock at the premiere of “Our Brand is Crisis”, October 2015. Image: AFP/Valerie Macon via AFP Relaxnews

Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock has lined up the lead role in “Let Her Speak”, a biopic about United States politician Wendy Russell who became well known for her fortitude and considerable oratory powers.

Wendy Davis was a U.S. state senator when she took to the floor on June 25, 2013. Up for discussion was Texas Senate Bill 5, a measure that tightened regulations surrounding abortion. Eleven hours later, Davis’s speech concluded. Other politicians picked up the baton, as did protestors in the gallery.

Voting took place but Davis, backed by a number of fellow senators and a group of onlookers, had pushed the vote back to after midnight; the marathon soliloquy had succeeded in forcing a delay, if only for a month.

David published her memoir in 2014 and then in 2015 NBC announced plans to make a TV series inspired by her career as a lawyer.

But it’s Sandra Bullock who is to play Davis in “Let Her Speak”, which is to cast its spotlight on not only the senator’s primetime moment but her earlier life as a teenage mom and then a Harvard Law School graduate.

Jason Blumenthal, Todd Black (both “The Pursuit of Happyness”), and Steve Tisch (“Forrest Gump”) are producing the film.

Bullock won her Oscar and a Golden Globe for another biographical movie, “The Blind Side”, and was nominated for both awards following her work on space station thriller “Gravity”.

She can next be seen in the female-led crime movie “Ocean’s Eight” as the heist crew’s ringleader, Debbie Ocean, and has the starring role in post-apocalypse survival tale “Bird Box” on her slate. JB

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