The movie about first black butler in White House adds the 22-year-old actor in the role of Thomas Westphall.
- Jun 19, 2012
AceShowbiz - Lee Daniels' "The Butler" adds one more actor to the list. "Magic Mike" star Alex Pettyfer is joining the star-studded movie in the role of Thomas Westphall which has a pivotal influence on Forest Whitaker's Eugene Allen and the rest of the character's life.
Based on Wil Haygood's Washington Post "A Butler Well Served by This Election", the movie has had stellar cast ensemble including Jane Fonda playing Nancy Reagan. There will also be Oprah Winfrey, Minka Kelly, Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Lenny Kravitz, David Oyelowo and Alan Rickman. Meanwhile, Vanessa Redgrave is still in talks to join.
The pic revolves around Eugene Allen, a black man who served as a White House butler for 34 years. Allen started at the White House as a "pantry man" in 1952 when blacks weren't allowed to use public restrooms in his native Virginia. He ended up serving eight presidents and had a unique front row seat as political and racial history was being made, from the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr., President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy Jr.
Filming will start in mid-July in New Orleans.
