Key Takeaways
- Damson Idris stars as a 22-year-old Miles Davis in Miles & Juliette, which follows the jazz legend’s transformative 1949 trip to Paris and romance with French singer and actress Juliette Gréco.
- The first-look image sparked debate over Hollywood spotlighting Gréco instead of Davis’ relationships with Black women such as Cicely Tyson, Frances Taylor, and Betty Davis, including his admitted abuse.
- Bill Pohlad directs Zora Howard’s script, with Robert Glasper overseeing the music and a cast portraying jazz greats including Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and John Coltrane.
Damson Idris has officially stepped into the role of Miles Davis—but the first glimpse of his new film has already set off a debate over which parts of the jazz icon’s life Hollywood chooses to put on screen.
Production is underway in Paris on Miles & Juliette, director Bill Pohlad’s film about Davis’ transformative 1949 trip to France and his romance with French singer and actress Juliette Gréco. Per Deadline, a newly released image shows Idris as the 22-year-old trumpeter alongside Anamaria Vartolomei as Gréco, the emerging face of Paris’ postwar Left Bank scene.
The photo immediately drew criticism from viewers questioning why the project centers Davis’ relationship with a white French woman rather than any of the Black women he later married. “Miles Davis had three Black wives, btw,” one person wrote on X. “But this is what Hollyweird chooses to focus on…”
Another critic pointed to Davis’ long, complicated history with Cicely Tyson, writing, “Miles Davis had a 22-year-long relationship with Cicely Tyson, including 7 years of marriage, and this is what they decided to make a movie about.”
Davis and Tyson married in 1981 and divorced in 1989, though their relationship spanned multiple periods of his life. Tyson also played a significant role in helping Davis regain his health and rebuild his career during the 1980s.
Davis’ other marriages included dancer Frances Taylor and model and musician Betty Mabry, later known professionally as Betty Davis. His relationships with women—including his admitted physical abuse—have remained a heavily scrutinized part of his legacy.
Another social media user acknowledged the importance Davis placed on Gréco while questioning the contrast between that romance and his treatment of his wives. “Miles Davis saw Juliette Greco as the love of his life to the point that even after having three black wives,” the commenter wrote, before asking, “Do y’all know what he put his black wives through?”
Written by Pulitzer Prize finalist Zora Howard, Miles & Juliette is built around one formative chapter: Davis’ first journey outside the United States, his appearance at the Paris International Jazz Festival and his entry into a creative world where he felt Black musicians received greater respect than they did at home.
Davis later wrote that the Paris trip “changed the way I looked at things forever.” Pohlad said that specific period—and the connection between two young artists on the verge of fame—is what drew him to the project.
“I’ve been captivated by the idea of telling this story—a fleeting encounter between two extraordinary young artists that becomes something neither of them could have imagined,” Pohlad said. “There’s something deeply cinematic about that kind of love: the music, the city, the artists, and the moment in time.”
The film’s expanded cast includes J. Alphonse Nicholson as Kenny “Klook” Clarke, Jay Reeves as Tadd Dameron, Terrace Martin as Charlie Parker, Denny Love as James Moody, Lodric D. Collins as Max Roach, and Hubert Point-Du Jour as John Coltrane. Robert Glasper, who produced the 2016 Davis tribute album Everything’s Beautiful, will serve as composer and music producer.
Don Cheadle previously portrayed Davis in 2016’s Miles Ahead, a fictionalized film set in a later period of the musician’s life.
