COVINGTON, Ga. — A new Amazon Prime Video limited series is now casting for teen actors in the metro Atlanta area.
“The Underground Railroad” is the title of an upcoming 11-episode limited series directed by Barry Jenkins, best known as the director and screenwriter of the acclaimed motion pictures "Moonlight" and "If Beale Street Could Talk."
Historically, the Underground Railroad is the most widely known and recognized covert elements of the anti-slavery and abolotionist movement in the United States during the 19th Century. It's goal was to help fugitive slaves escape the South in order to get to free states in the North or to Canada.
According to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History & Culture, before the Civil War, the Underground Railroad was was primarily run, maintained and funded by African Americans.
Some of the cast members of the upcoming Prime Video series include Thuso Mdedu, Chase W. Dillon and Aaron Pierre, according to Variety.
The outlet reports the show will follow one woman’s desperate journey to freedom after escaping the Georgia plantation where she lived.
Variety says the woman discovers the Underground Railroad is "no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil."
Jenkins has been tapped to direct all 11 episodes of the one-hour series. This will be his first television project.
No air date has been announced for the series as of this point.
Production on this series began during the late summer throughout several parts of Georgia. In August, A-Scene Insider Yvonne Lowery said she saw the basecamp sign “UGRR” near Myrtle Creek Farm in Newton County.
Casting directors are now hiring actors, models, and talent to work on scenes filming in Covington, Georgia.
They said that producers are seeking “(3) African American Males (between ages 18-20) with reliable transportation that can swim."
How to apply (Here are the notes sent by a casting producer):
We are literally looking for young adults 18 to 20 that can pass as teenagers.
If you have Aqua-phobia do not submit please
Possible Rate: $200/ for 8 hours (TBD)
This will be a night shoot in Covington on Friday, 11/15
Must wear 1900’s swim attire, will be required to walk through a pond of water that will rise above the chest.
No beards, no dreads, no twist, non-false lashes, no multicolored hair.
In an e-mail, producers said they want actors to submit 3 recent photos, age, name, number, weight, and wardrobe sizes.
If you think you’ve got what it takes, e-mail FreedomBGTalent@gmail.com with the subject line: Swim Boy.
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