Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

In 2015, Denzel Washington announced that he would be bringing all ten of August Wilson's "Century Cycle" plays to the big or small screen. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the second filmed Wilson adaptation Washington has produced in this cycle, after Fences (2016). In September 2020, Washington told the New York Times that the third film in the series would be The Piano Lesson, and that he hoped to cast his own son John David Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, with Barry Jenkins directing.

The action of the film takes place on July 2, 1927. Ma Rainey's car in the film is a Model A Ford which were not introduced to the public until December 1927.

During the first part of the credits, actual photographs of the real Ma Rainey and the musicians who inspired the characters in the play are shown.

Featured in Sky News @Breakfast: Episode dated 19 December 2020 (2020)