According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sarah Lancashire has signed on to play Julia Child in the HBO Max drama pilot Julia about the renowned chef. The actress replaces Joan Cusack in the role after she dropped out of the project for unspecified reasons.
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The series also cast Tom Hollander (The Night Manager) as Julia’s husband, Paul Child; Brittany Bradford (Macbeth) as Alice, an associate producer of WGBH-TV’s I’ve Been Reading; Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers) as Avis, Child’s friend; and Isabella Rossellini as Simca, a co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Fran Kranz (Dollhouse), Fiona Glascott (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald), and Jefferson Mays (I Am the Night) also star.
Per the report, “Julia is inspired by Child’s life and her TV show, The French Chef, which essentially invented food television. Through Child and her singular can-do spirit, it explores an evolving time in American history — the emergence of a new social institution called public television, feminism and the women’s movement, the nature of celebrity and America’s cultural growth. At its heart, the show is a portrait of a marriage with an evolving and complicated power dynamic.”
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Chris Keyser (Party of Five) serves as showrunner on the project, written by Daniel Goldfarb (Tyrant).
Lancashire is known for her various roles on TV series such as Last Tango in Halifax, The Accident, and Happy Valley, among others.
