Grace Jones gets vulnerable in new film
Jamaican singer songwriter Grace Jones finds herself again in ‘Grace Jones: Blood light and Ba mi ’, director Sophie Fienn es’ intimate documentarythat looks beyond the icon’ s exploit sin the ’70 sand ’80sclubscene
ling world, you get to a point where you are all the time having your guard up about how you look. There was maybe one time, I thought, oh, Sophie dear, I look a little bit fat there — [laughs] not like in my pictures. And I just say to myself, what am I doing? This is not about that. It’s OK to be myself.
Your stage presence is so fierce, what did it feel like to show yourself in more vulnerable, intimate moments, like meeting your newborn granddaughter?
Normally I don’t like people to see that vulnerable side of me, it’s not a side that I normally would share with the world. But when I decided to do the film, I felt strong enough, actually, to show the vulnerable side. A lot of my stage performance [persona], I found out later, was actually coming from Mas P, who was my bully, who was an abuser.
And I always thought maybe that is why that stronger side was there, to protect the little girl in me. I like to call the little girl Bev [her middle name is Beverly], and Grace is the protector. I’m starting to sound like Sybil. In the film, we see how often you still have to keep people in line about how to respect your vision.
There’s a lot of fantasy connected to me, I know that. I had to be very strict on managers, because sometimes they do have other agendas. I literally managed myself for 15 years. I learnt a lot from working with Chris Blackwell [the Island Records founder, who released her debut studio album, Portfolio, in 1977]. I still call him one of my mentors. I believe he tested me on some things — when we were recording sometimes, and he wouldn’t show up, just to see if I was going to handle everything right. And when things would go wrong, I would walk out of the studio. I’ve done a lot worse than what you’ve seen in the film. If I don’t want something, people will tell you, there’s nothing you can do — you couldn’t pay me enough, you can’t buy me to do something I don’t like, and that’s just how I am. I don’t know if it’s from growing up in a very strict family. It could be that — after I got out of there, and I had my own say, that I’m going to stick with how I am feeling.
I just would not have lawyers ever have any meetings without me being there. They always say, ‘Oh, just go, do your tour, do your thing, look pretty, go on TV, let us worry about that.’ I didn’t do that. I would come to every meeting with the contract, and if I didn’t understand, I’d have them explain it to me. I’d come with a sandwich, and sit among all the guys. I’ve had new artists see me on a flight and come up to me with a contract and say, can you read this for me?
You lament the dwindling of nightlife culture: ‘11:30 in New York, and people are leaving a party. Honey, they must be depressed.’ Is it hard to find people who can keep up with you?
Oh definitely. Nowadays, even the younger ones — I’m going, oh my God, come on, what’s wrong with you guys? It wasn’t just keeping up with me — in the ’80s, all of us would just seem to have more energy. I used to love giving parties in my apartment in New York, it was a loft apartment, where I mean... people were crashing the parties and it would be some famous movie star. They would sleep in the bathtub, or anywhere. You’d wake up and there’d be bodies everywhere.
Do you ever feel old? Never. I feel wiser.
Did you learn anything about yourself from watching the film?
I’m funny! I found myself laughing at myself more than I normally would, going, oh my God I can’t believe I did that, did I really say that? Because it’s not scripted, it’s not like I have to rehearse any lines — things would sometimes come out of my mouth and I’d go, oh Jesus.