Music veteran Mary J. Blige performed at a special event in New York City recently in honor of Casa Réale, a fine jewelry line. During the event, ELLE caught up with the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, and she touched on several topics including playing an action role, music freedom in the UK, and Jay Z running for President.
Check out some excerpts from the interview:
On Acting Roles She Would Like to do Next: Honestly? I'd like to do an action film. I'd love to get all ripped and play a superhero or something like that. I love The Avengers. I love X0Men. I love all that stuff based on comics… I worked with [comic legend] Stan Lee for the intro to my [summer tour in 2000]. We made a video where I played a superhero, and my voice was able to save young children. It was amazing! But that was a cartoon, though—in an action film, I'd like it to be the real me.
On UK Having The Best Music Scene: Because the artists are allowed to be who they are. They aren't being told to be like someone else—whoever's hot at the moment. If you look at Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith and Ellie [Goulding], it's like each person is doing something completely different from the other person. If you listen to the radio it's like, 'Wow, what is this song? What is that song?' In the U.S., everything in the radio sounds alike. It's because artists aren't free to be themselves.
On Feeling Pressure to be Someone Else: Of course. People have said, "go do what this person is doing," or "go do what the younger kids are doing," and I just couldn't agree with that, because that's just not who I am. What they're doing is beautiful, but I want to do what I want to do. That's what separates me.
On Which Celebrity Should be President: I would say Jay Z. People listen to him and follow him. If he spoke, and it was something that could help people, it would have a huge impact. He's a powerful man. He would be my first vote.
We love how Mary always keeps it REAL! Visit ELLE for the full interview.
Founder and Creator of Singersroom.com and IncredibleWork.com. Follow me on Instagram at @gary.gentles.
