Awkwafina plays an underachieving stoner in her semi-autobiographical Comedy Central series “Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens,” but she’ll step into the shoes of a high roller on the big screen. The Golden Globe-winning actress is re-teaming with SK Global, the company behind her 2018 smash hit comedy “Crazy Rich Asians,” for “The Baccarat Machine,” a pic inspired by the true story “of the most successful female gambler in modern history, Cheung Yin ‘Kelly’ Sun, and her unlikely partnership with legendary poker player Phil Ivey.” Deadline confirmed the news.
Based on an article by Michael Kaplan in Cigar Aficionado, “The Baccarat Machine” follows Sun “as she painstakingly develops talent and obsession for payback into beating the system at their own game. With major casinos conspiring to bar her from their properties, Sun partners with the international ‘King of Poker’ Ivey in order to take down the system through subterfuge, ingenuity, and pure daring, resulting in one of the most ingenious legal gambling runs ever documented,” the source details.
“The Baccarat Machine” is a working title. Andy Bellin (“Lovelace”) is penning the script and “talks with potential directors are currently underway.”
Awkwafina won a Golden Globe earlier this year for Best Lead Actress in a Musical or Comedy for “The Farewell,” making her the first woman of Asian descent to take home the honor. Written and directed by Lulu Wang and based on an actual lie, the film tells the story of a family who decides to lie to their matriarch about her terminal cancer diagnosis. “The Farewell” was recently named Best Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards.
“Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens” was renewed for a second season before its first season premiered. The show debuted on Comedy Central January 22. The first season was written entirely by women. Lucia Aniello (“Broad City”), Jamie Babbit (“But I’m a Cheerleader”), and Anu Valia (“The Other Two”) are among its directors.
“The first time I saw Margaret Cho on Comedy Central, she was like a unicorn. She was an Asian woman who had a perfect American accent, something I wasn’t used to seeing,” Awkwafina has said. “And she was so funny and unashamed and bold. I remember thinking, ‘That is what I want to be.’ Just seeing her made it seem slightly more possible,” she explained. “And then Lucy Liu in ‘Charlie’s Angels’ and Michelle Yeoh in her action movies. When you don’t have representation growing up, you don’t know how to materialize your dreams. You don’t even know it’s possible.”
You can catch Awkwafina in theaters now in “Jumanji: The Next Level.” Her upcoming slate includes Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and the live-action “Little Mermaid.”
