The role that saved Mary J Blige's life
These desperate times call for distinctly unglamorous measures so she has bundled herself up in the fluffy bathrobe that was hanging in the wardrobe.
This look, bathrobe aside, seems in keeping with the Mary J Blige we already know ā the performer, the show woman, the winner of nine Grammys, the queen of hip-hop soul.
And it is this persona she had to put away completely to take on her most challenging movie role to date, in the new Netflix film Mudbound, and this role of Florence Jackson, the wife and mother of a family of sharecroppers in the segregated US.
āMary J Blige the business, not the person, is the manufactured, material, vain person,ā she admits. āSo I had to shed her once I saw Florenceās wardrobe and when I found out I couldnāt wear any lace-fronts and I couldnāt get a perm and I couldnāt wear lashes and I couldnāt wear nails, I had to shed the manufactured business Mary.
āOnce I shed her it was easy for Mary to say āāYou know what? Iām going to give every piece of darkness that Iām dealing with right now, because I have some challenges in my life as well, so Iām going to give you all of this heaviness and all of this sadness and insecurity and feeling inferior because this is what youāve been told in this bad situation and Iām going to give it to you.ā
āāBut Iām also going to give you Maryās strength that she gained, so you can have all these different things.ā So once I committed to Florence, Florence started saving Maryās life.ā
It was while she was filming on location in Louisiana that Bligeās marriage to manager Kendu Isaacs was falling apart. In July 2016, she cited irreconcilable differences as grounds for divorce.
āWhat I was channelling was all of the sadness that I was feeling,ā she confesses. āIām in the middle of a divorce now and during that time I wasnāt divorced yet, I just was in the middle of āsomethingās wrong and I just canāt prove whatās wrong but Iām sad and Iām miserable and Iāve been sad and miserable for about five years nowā.
āSo I just gave that five years of misery to Florence. I said āIāve got to survive this thingā, because it was too heavy, so I gave all that to Florence.ā
In the film she plays the mother of a young man, played by Straight Outta Comptonās Jason Mitchell, returning home from World War Two, who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a white fellow veteran, played by Garrett Hedlund.
The role, of an enduring, loving mother suffering the agonies of separation from her child and then terror and horror when he is subjected to the evil brutalities of the Southās deep racism, helped Blige find a way through her own struggles.
āIt helped and itās helping,ā she says. āIām still in the process of all this madness that Iām in and this movie is really helping me be happy because itās another chapter, itās a new chapter and Iām leaving this one behind so itās helping.
āThis role was therapeutic for me because I got a chance to take all of what was going crazy inside of me.
āWhen you sing you can just release and yell and go crazy but this was intense, I had to hold on to it, every single day. As Florence I had to hold it, she couldnāt outburst, she had to suffer, she couldnāt speak as much so I got to find out how really strong I am.ā
The fact that she is almost unrecognisable in the film ā even fellow cast members didnāt realise they were on set with her ā was a big help.
āIt was best that I disappear, when I see the film Iām able to watch it from a critical stand point and say āWow I really lost myself to this characterā so itās better that Iām not recognisable at all.
āIāve seen a lot of my films and I did Betty And Coretta and I did Rock Of Ages but the one thing that stood out is I could still see me, Mary J Blige, and this character Florence just
possessed the whole thing, sheās taken it away from me, Iām happy about that.ā
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