As if the Prop 8 play, aptly titled 8, wasn’t already packed with a star-studded cast, it was announced today that Brad Pitt will be joining the likes of George Clooney, Jane Lynch, Chris Colfer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jamie Lee Curtis and more. The staged reading will recreate the tumultuous trial of Perry v. Brown (formerly Schwarzenegger), the suit filed by AFER to overturn Prop 8 after it stripped same-sex couples the right to marry.
Pitt will star as Judge Vaughn R. Walker, the man who originally ruled Prop 8 unconstitutional.
Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, the genius behind Milk and J. Edgar, says he based 8 on the actual words of the trial transcripts, firsthand observations of the courtroom drama, and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families, reports The Advocate.
“People need to witness what happened in the Proposition 8 trial, if for no other reason than to see inequality and discrimination unequivocally rejected in a court of law where truth and facts matter,” said Black. “I’ve built my career around exposing and uncovering ‘the real story.’ The goal of 8 is to show the world that marriage equality is a basic constitutional right and that those who would deny this basic freedom from loving, committed couples have only vitriol and baseless hyperbole to fall back on. The facts are on our side and truth always finds the light. We are doing all we can to help speed that process along.”
The West Coast premiere reading of 8 streamed live via YouTube on Saturday, March 3rd. Check out the video here:
Photo: imdb.com
