Your music is so free in the way that it moves between genres and moods, the people you collaborate with? Is it important to you to not put a precise label on the work that you do? Yeah, people say that a lot. And I’m just like, ‘Ok, like why not?’ That’s crazy to limit what you need to do. I mean, sometimes I am where I’ll just be like, ‘I might wear the same colours for over a decade and be super hard core in that. But I think when it comes to music and storytelling, being able to have that freedom has been important to me.
People are quite often surprised when musicians move into acting, but that seems strange considering the amount of acting that musicians do in music videos. Do you consider that to be acting in the same way as you do when you’re in a film or tv show? It’s all storytelling to me. I don’t look at myself as a musician turned actor or actor/musician. I think I’ve probably been acting my whole life. What if I am an act? Nobody knows, but me. Who are we? I feel like we have so many spirits and so many different sides of us.
Do you think this kind of new act of your life has stemmed from beginning to create different types of narratives, obviously, music and acting, you say they’re all part of the part of you, but now you’re an author as well. I’m open to everything. I think I have to see it, even down to reading a script. So for ‘Glass Onion’ like the director or writer can send me something and people look at me crazy like, ‘You just need to do it. You’ll be working with this person.’ But I would never accept something if I don’t see it, even down to a performance. If I can’t visualise myself onstage doing the move, or like, what the audience looks like, and what I have on, I don’t usually want to do it. I want to do things, especially now, that I’m passionate about, that I’m going
to be engaged with, because when you’re collaborating with people they want to have a good experience with you. By having a good experience, I think both of you should be obsessed about the process and the love of building it. Because once it’s done, it’s done. Then it becomes everybody’s thing. But I think when I’m working, I like to be in love with the idea of making it happen, if that makes sense.
Let’s talk about ‘Moonlight’ – how amazing for that to be your first film role? What did you think when you first heard about the movie? I always have to thank Barry for giving me an opportunity to be a part of such an iconic film, a film that meant so much to Miami, because that’s where we filmed it, to the black community, to the queer experience. I remember reading that script on a flight and I was just in tears. On the page, it touched my heart. I was like, ‘If I’m given an opportunity for this to be the first film…’, because I wanted my first film naturally to be a science fiction film. But I’m so happy it was ‘Moonlight’ because it meant a lot to a lot of people. I can’t tell you the amount of people who saw my role Teresa and felt seen and felt like they could be a better ally to folks who were trying to make sense of who they are and their identity. A lot of my role was around listening. I think I learned with ‘Moonlight’ how to be a good listener. You know, not to always have the answer and just allow people to listen to themselves out loud without you interfering. I think that’s a powerful tool - just in life.
There are three different time jumps in ‘Moonlight’ – did you have an overarching idea of who Teresa was, what was going on in her life, between all of those sections? Yeah, I knew Teresa well. Teresa was my older cousin, Teresa was my aunt, Teresa was my grandmother. Teresa was all the matriarchal women and spirits in my community that just kind of took you in,
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
17
CE L EBRIT Y INTERVI EW JANE L L E MONÁE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124
