It's about time that Jessica Williams got a platform on Netflix. The Daily Show correspondent has risen to prominence in the past two years via her podcast Two Dope Queens, but she's yet to receive a widely publicized solo platform.
Enter: The Incredible Jessica James, a movie that will make its debut on Netflix this July. Williams stars as Jessica James, a young playwright who, recovering from a breakup, begins a friendship with a divorcée played by Chris O'Dowd. Netflix dropped the teaser trailer today, a high-energy 30-second clip that's just Jessica Williams being Jessica James, i.e. being incredible.
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"I'm gonna stop you right there, because I'm not loving the vibe of this interaction so far," she says to an awkward Tinder date. Later, she stares down a man on the subway for manspreading. (Would that we all had the courage to do the same.)
"I'm pretty, I'm smart, I am the cocoa queen," she says triumphantly. The film also stars Noël Wells and Get Out's Lakeith Stanfield.
Jim Strouse, the writer and director, crafted the role with Jessica Williams in mind. "I'd never written anything for an actor [before]. Jessica and I, we know each other, we're friends. It was really helpful to visualize her and imagine her saying the [lines]," Strouse told Dropbox at Sundance.
Early reviews have laid down the laurels for Williams, whose unabashed confidence is part of the intoxicating Two Dope Queens equation. Of the film, Variety wrote, "Some people are born to be movie stars, and The Incredible Jessica James successfully makes that case for leading lady Jessica Williams."
The Incredible Jessica James arrives on Netflix on July 28.
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