After 10 albums, 28 Grammy nominations, her own perfumes and sunglasses line Mary J Blige is up for a new task being an actress.
Though it seems to be a trend, singers-turned-actors, Mary knows that it’ll take hard work and practice to be an actress who is respected. “I don’t want to be the singer that just got the part,” she told ELLE magazine. “I want to earn it.”
Next summer’s Rock of Ages based on the Broadway musical Mary plays club owner “Justice Charlier” and this fall she’ll take on the enormous task of playing Nina Simone in a biopic.
ELLE calls Blige’s role as Simone “the true test of her big-screen skills" and it will be a test indeed, as Mary confessed she had very little idea who the late, iconic singer even was. Now she says, “I learned that she was a woman on the search for love, as well. You know, looking for love, standing up for her rights, and not being understood.”
