If there was one thing that the N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton was criticized for, it was for completely failing to address Dr. Dre's troubling past in regards to violence against women. A new TV movie titled Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le attempts to correct that omission.
The first trailer for the Lifetime movie about Michel'le and her relationships with Dr. Dre and Suge Knight depicts an enraged Dre grabbing the Ruthless Records singer (and the label's first solo female artist) by the neck during a studio session.
Michel'le, who has a son with Dre, was not featured as a character in Straight Outta Compton, and gave her own reasoning for that in an interview with VladTV back when the movie came out, saying "Why would [Dre] put me in it? I was just a quiet girlfriend who got beat on and told to sit down and shut up."
Dee Barnes, who was assaulted by Dre at a Los Angeles release party in 1991, penned an essay for Gawker when Straight Outta Compton was released, writing, "I didn't want to see a depiction of me getting beat up, just like I didn't want to see a depiction of Dre beating up Michel'le, his one-time girlfriend."
The trailer is not all negative, though. It also shows Michel'le, who was known for having a childlike speaking voice, as a powerfully talented singer. Michel'le is played by Rhyon Nicole Brown, with Curtis Hamilton depicting Dre, and R. Marcos Taylor in the role of Knight. Comedian Jamie Kennedy is playing N.W.A. manager Jerry Heller.
Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le, is set to premiere on Oct. 15.
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