Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Will the Golden Globes o-Blige?
‘Queen of Hip Hop Soul’ nominated for best supporting actress award
MARY J Blige is back in the spotlight. But it’s not just because of her landmark contributions to the fusion of soul and hip hop or her meme-able dance moves. She is nominated for best supporting actress at this weekend’s Golden Globes for her role in the Netflix drama Mudbound.
So how did Blige transition from worldwide music icon to serious, Golden Globe-nominated actress?
Since her 1992 multiplatinum debut album, What’s the 411?, seven more of Blige’s records have reached multiplatinum status. She’s won nine Grammys and been nominated for 22. In her more than 25-year career, she has sold over 50 million albums.
Blige is perhaps best known for her sophomore work, My Life, which was inspired by struggles with clinical depression, substance abuse and an abusive relationship. Rolling Stone included the album in its list of the “100 best albums of the 1990s” because of how she showcased a “rare gift for pouring her heart into a recording, to make her soul come through the speakers”.
Now, her soul has come through film as she moves from “queen of hip hop soul” to serious screen queen.
Blige said her interest in acting dates back to performing in plays when she was seven. Her first on- screen performance was the 2001 independent film, Prison Song. “I hope people don’t go digging it up.”
Prison Song was followed by roles that used her musical talents. She starred in Tyler Perry’s 2009 musical comedy-drama, I Can Do Bad All By Myself; the 2012 musical Rock of Ages, and 2013’s Black Nativity. Blige also produced a song, The Living Proof, for the 2012 critically acclaimed film, The Help, the source of her first Golden Globes nomination – for best original song in a motion picture. Blige received her second song nomination this year for Mighty River from the Mudbound soundtrack.
The drama is set in the American South in the 1940s, in a society dominated by Jim Crow segregation laws. The film follows two families – one white, one black – and how their lives intertwine on a farm just outside of a small Mississippi town. Blige portrays Florence Jackson, the mother of a World War II war hero who returns to the same prejudices he left behind while overseas.
Among an ensemble cast of more seasoned actors including Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke and Jason Mitchell, Blige fits right in – so well, some audiences could not believe it was her.
Blige’s raw, emotional performance is reminiscent of the music that catapulted her to stardom – just without the blonde hair, make-up diminishing the tear-shaped scar on her face and freshly manicured nails. Blige is no longer just vocally and lyrically raw, but visually, too.
That visual pain is evident in Mudbound, even when her eyes are covered with sunglasses at the most emotionally pivotal points. Though Blige’s narration during a scene in which her character refuses to watch her son head off to war is gut-wrenching, it’s sometimes what Florence doesn’t say that is most moving.
Director Dee Rees said she knew from the start she wanted Blige for the role. Rees said she “really wanted someone unexpected”, but that she knew what Blige was capable of.
“With Mary’s music, if you’ve been to her concerts, it’s literally like a therapy session. She’s not just performing; she’s living it. Every verse, she’s reliving the heartbreak or the joy; you feel it. I needed a character that can make people feel, and knew she could bring it.”
Blige was inspired immediately. “When I read the script, I was moved because it showed at the end of the day, when it all gets down to it, love has no colour,” Blige said, noting the film’s themes speak to “today’s times”, too.
She said the performance was therapeutic to the pain she experienced in her ongoing divorce from Martin “Kendu” Isaacs. “I just had all the heaviness of not feeling right, not feeling good. I gave it to Florence.” – Washington Post