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Janelle Monáe Shines in New “Hidden Figures” Trailer

Janelle Monáe is showing off her acting chops in the upcoming film Hidden Figures. She will star alongside Octavia Spencer, Taraji P Henson, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst and Jim Parsons, in a story that shows the role of women of colour in NASA’s first journey to the moon. The film, which is set in the late 1960s, has been based on a non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly with the same name.

The trailer portrays Henson’s character Katherine Johnson as going from an incredibly bright school kid to a mathematician helping NASA win the race against Russia to the moon. She, with Dorothy Vaughan (Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Monáe), rises up to fight against the sexism within the industry and prove that they can do the work just as well as any man could.

Although we’re excited to see her acting skills in action, we were hoping she’d be releasing any new music alongside this project. It’s been three years since her third album The Electric Lady, which reached number five on the Billboard Top 200 and 22 on the ARIA charts. Still, we’re looking forward to her portrayal of a strong woman in what looks to be an inspiring film.

Watch the trailer below. Hidden Figures will be released on January 13th.

Image: Billboard