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Paras Griffin/Getty ImagesJohnny Gill’s story is being told again. And the “My, My, My” crooner couldn’t be happier about it.
Last week, the cast of the forthcoming BET series New Edition: The Movie was unveiled during a glitzy presentation at New York City’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. All members of the 1980’s R&B super group, including Bobby Brown, were on hand for the announcement.
The movie will star Empire actor Bryshere Gray as Michael Bivins, Elijah Kelley as Ricky Bell, Keith Powers as Ronnie DeVoe, Algee Smith as Ralph Tresvant, Woody McClain as Brown and Grammy-nominated crooner Luke James as Gill.
Gill, who has a few Grammy nominations under his belt, is excited about the casting choices – especially for his role.
“Luke James is going to play me and … he can sing, which I think that they needed that. I mean, as they were going through the right person who was going to play me, that was one probably of the biggest challenges,” Gill tells ABC Radio.
“It’s funny because we’ve hung out and have been hanging out with each one of our guys who are playing us so they can kind of get some kind of idea of our character and our personality,” Gill says. “And sure enough, this guy comes in the room — because I’m the craziest one out of them all — so he comes in the room with his crew doing the same thing that I’m doing without really being around me; the life of the party, always talking and ranking on somebody, always creating and stirring up something that’s got people crying laughing.”
He continues, “And I’m looking at this guy going, ‘This fool, this is me over here.’ He’s just capturing the essence of who I am. And as we began to hang out and talk and I’m starting to go, ‘Wow,’ and he said, ‘That’s why I went out for the role because I could identity and connect with you.’ And I knew that from the jump. When they would say, ‘Why don’t you try out for Bobby?’ he was like, ‘Nah, this is the one that I can connect with.'”
Shooting for the miniseries will kick off in Los Angeles in May. ATL-director Chris Robinson will helm the project.
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