Baz Lurhmann’s ‘The Get Down’ Adds Jaden Smith

Jaden Smith has joined the cast of Baz Luhrmann’s music-driven Netflix series, The Get Down.

The controversial young actor and musician will take on the role of Marcus “Dizzee” Kipling, an 18-year-old psychedelically talented and enigmatic graffiti writer raised in the South Bronx. (Tell me that doesn’t sound fitting.)

“We as an audience have known Jaden since he was very young. Recently, Jaden has been seeking diverse and challenging roles and this is a testament to his passion to grow in the craft,”said Luhrmann in a statement. “In the short time he has joined our acting family, he has begun developing his The Get Down skill set, even taking lessons from the legendary graffiti artist Lady Pink of ‘Wild Style’ fame, as well as steeping himself in the history and culture of the Bronx. We’re all very happy with the casting of Jaden in the role of ‘Dizzee’ Kipling, and with his addition, the Kipling family cast is now complete.”

Below is a description of the series, per Netflix:

The Get Down will focus on 1970s New York City – broken down and beaten up, violent, cash strapped – dying. Consigned to rubble, a rag-tag crew of South Bronx teenagers are nothings and nobodies with no one to shelter them – except each other, armed only with verbal games, improvised dance steps, some magic markers and spray cans. From Bronx tenements, to the SoHo art scene; from CBGBs to Studio 54 and even the glass towers of the just-built World Trade Center, The Get Down is a mythic saga of how New York at the brink of bankruptcy gave birth to hip-hop, punk and disco – told through the lives and music of the South Bronx kids who changed the city, and the world…forever

The network previously announced  the show’s young leads: Herizen Guardiola (“Mylene Cruz”), Justice Smith (“Ezekiel”), Shameik Moore (“Shaolin Fantastic”), Skylan Brooks (“Ra Ra”) and Tremaine Brown, Jr. (“Boo Boo”). Additional announced castmembers include Jimmy Smits (“Francisco Cruz” aka “Papa Fuerte”), Yahya Abdul-Mateen (“Cadillac”) and Mamoudou Athie (“Grandmaster Flash”).

The Get Down is set to debut on Netflix in 2016.

Photo Credit: Alex McDonell

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