According to The Wrap, singer Janelle Monáe has joined the cast of Hidden Figures, director Ted Melfi’s movie about the three African-American mathematicians who were instrumental in astronaut John Glenn’s trip into the Earth’s orbit in the ‘60s. Monáe will be playing the group’s youngest member, Mary Jackson, with Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer playing the higher-ups, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan. Kevin Costner will also be there, but he’ll be playing the head of the space program instead of a female mathematician.
As The Wrap notes, this will be Monáe’s first proper acting role in a big studio film. She provided a voice in Rio 2 and will appear in the indie coming-of-age drama Moonlight, but those don’t really count. Given the fondness for science fiction she displays in her music, though, it’s probably just a matter of time before Monáe jumps from biopics like this to Star Wars movies.