Stevie Wonder is one of those amazingly talented people you have to wonder about when it comes to how he got so popular and so good at what he does. His blindness was caused by being born six weeks premature, combined with an oxygen-rich atmosphere in his incubator which caused the growth of his eyes to stop and his retinas to detach, causing his blindness. Unlike a few people that can’t see he was never given the chance thanks to this incident at birth. But that didn’t stop him from becoming a singer and then a full-blown musician since he was still a child that enjoyed what he did and had a zest for life that has carried over into his older years as many have had the chance to see. It kind of seems like it might be time for a biopic about his life, as there’s already been one about Ray Charles and a few other noted musicians. Maybe now it’s his turn.
Here are a few men that might be able to take on the role.
5. Jeffrey Wright
Some might think that Jeffrey Wright is a little too light-skinned for the role and they could be right, but his mannerisms and his acting ability would be just perfect since he can be expressive as well as quiet as he’s proven on Westworld and a few other projects. It’s not hard to see that he wouldn’t be the first pick though since there are a lot of others that would probably be selected first, second, and so on. But in terms of ability he’s definitely one of those that would bear some consideration since he is a very talented man and is able to take on a persona that is needed for a given movie.
4. Larenz Tate
This might seem like an odd choice since he doesn’t quite seem the type that could fit into this role, but given that movies like this use at least a few different people to show the passage of time in a person’s life it might be that he could play a younger Stevie and shed some light on the earlier years in the musician’s life. After all he did play a young Quincy Jones in Ray and while some folks might not remember that as well he did a pretty good job and should at least be looked at with some consideration for a role such as this. If nothing else he could be used as a younger version before the story moved on.
3. Jaime Foxx
You might be rolling your eyes at this one since he already played Ray Charles in Ray, but that only proves that he’s pretty good at what he does and is entirely believable. So yes, the movie did take a few liberties here and there, it’s a movie after all, things are going to be made a little more dramatic or exciting than they really were at times. But Foxx has proven that he has what it takes to really study up on an individual and get to know them so that he can portray them in the best way possible. Just watching him with Ray Charles before Ray passed on was actually kind of inspiring.
2. Terrence Howard
People either like or don’t like Terrence Howard it seems since he does play good parts and he is a great actor, but his character seems to come in question when he’s off screen quite often. Whatever’s going on in that regard isn’t really important when he’s on screen and doing his thing, and it does seem as though he could take this role and run with it if it was given to him. He’s played a man that was all about the music, well, at least partly about the music, in Hustle & Flow, but it seems that this kind of role could be an upgrade for him since it would require a lot more study and a great deal more control when it comes to how he plays it.
1. Eddie Murphy
Honestly you should have been expecting this name to hit the top spot since Eddie Murphy has already done a Stevie Wonder routine in the past. As Claire Hennakam from Noise11 reminds us he even did a duet with Wonder at one point on stage. The only thing that seems like it would derail this idea is that Murphy declined to do the Stevie Wonder bit on SNL a long time ago any longer since he didn’t think it was funny. But considering that this wouldn’t be satire there’s some hope that he might change his mind if the idea was ever brought to him, since he’s more than just a comedian and this would be another chance to prove it.
One of these days this biopic is going to be made, just watch.
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