Mary J. Blige remembers the first time she received positive feedback for her acting. “When I was 7, I did a Christmas play at school, and the other students and teachers were like, 'This boy who was in the play and I did really, really, really well,'” she says. “It put a sense of, 'OK, maybe I can really do this,' and I've always wanted to act. [after] getting that feedback. At some point, I just let it go and went into the music business.”
Choosing the music business early in her career has more than worked out for Blige. To date, the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, won nine Grammys, and is set to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October. And she’s not stopping. She just released “Breathing” with rapper Fabolous, the lead single from her 15th studio album, due this fall. The secret ingredient to longevity in the music business, says the Yonkers, New York, native, is her.
“I've been in control of my music for years,” he says. The Hollywood Reporter. “It connects so well with my fans, because I'm not doing anything that anyone else tells me to do or that anyone else is doing. It just feels good to have my own identity, and I've had it for years. Not being afraid, not chasing, not running after what everyone else is doing, but just being myself in an authentic way is awesome.”
Becoming Mary J. Blige, the legendary singer, apparently, was good for her acting career. She got the virus again after doing The Jamie Foxx Show in 1998, mixing singing and acting in the episode “Papa Don't Preach,” with Ron Isley. “I played a character named Ola Mae and people said I was amazing,” she says. “People were amazed at my performance. And I was like, 'OK, I think I can do this.' And then things like Strong medicine he came, and Ghost Whisperer and all kinds of other things. Everyone started showing up with [projects]so I just kept doing it and practicing.”
That practice paid off in 2018, when she received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her role as Florence Jackson in director Dee Rees’s heartbreaking historical drama. Muddy with Rob Morgan and Carey Mulligan, along with another nomination for Best Original Song for “The Mighty River,” which she co-wrote and performed. The double nomination marked the first time anyone had received two nominations in a single year in Oscar history.
But Blige never rests on her laurels and continues to push herself. This was especially evident in 2020, when Power Book II: Ghostthe first spin-off of friend and fellow musical artist Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson's hit urban drama Energywhich also featured longtime friend Clifford “Method Man” Smith, Jr., debuted. The series' success made Energy a true franchise and a universe all her own. Her role as the ruthless queen and matriarch Monet Tejada has inspired many memes, and now some fans, new and old, are even calling her Monet.
Before the second episode of GhostThe fourth and final season of , which premiered in June, resumed on September 6, and hit the big screen in Peace Stuffa heartbreaking true story written and directed by fellow Oscar nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor that shares an interesting parallel with Ghost AND Energy star Michael Rainey Jr.'s character Tariq. Like that character, Rob Peace, a Newark native and Yale student, also sold drugs on his college campus. Peace's motives, however, were far different from those of the fictional Tariq. Instead, they were tied to Peace's dreams of freeing his father from prison, saving him from a terminal illness, and funding his efforts to uplift his community.
Blige plays Peace's mother, Jackie, alongside King of Tulsa co-star and Juilliard graduate Jay Will, whose performance she praises. “This guy was incredible. It was Rob,” she says. “When I showed up as Jackie, he was already completely into Rob, and it just blew me away.”
Their chemistry was immediate. “We found each other and clicked,” she recalls. “It just worked.”
Mary J. Blige in Peace Stuff.
Images of the Republic/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
Ejiofor said he first cast Blige, who is also an executive producer on the film, and that her involvement dating back to the pre-pandemic days helped the film get made. At the time, Blige and Ejiofor, who also plays Peace's father, Skeet, and adapted the screenplay from the 2014 film The New York Times best seller The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs, Peace's friend and roommate at Yale — they didn't know each other.
“She called my agency and said she wanted Mary J. Blige to play Jackie. And I said, 'OK, let me read the script,' and it turned out it was a true story. The script was heartbreaking, sad, but uplifting and optimistic at the same time. It reminded me of my mother and every other mother who lives in the inner city and raises kids.”
Peace's mother was convinced that Mary would do her justice. “She was so sweet. She's a fan,” she said. Share my world singer says of her real-life counterpart. “She was so proud that it was me, because people know my story and she was happy that I could relate and play it.”
Blige has also found a way to blend her music with film and TV. Last year, she premiered two Lifetime movies: True love AND Strength of a woman — centered on two of his most popular songs featuring BMF prefers Ajiona Alexus and Da'Vinchi.
“That was my idea, and the idea of the team I had at the time, to turn some of my songs into films,” he says. “We have another one, Family affairit's actually coming to Lifetime and it's a continuation of that,” he says. “Da'Vinchi and Ajiona, both of them, are going to be in that.”
Still closing Ghostwhich ends Oct. 4, just in time for his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and a new album, is “definitely bittersweet,” he says.
“I enjoyed it. Monet helped me a lot in my personal life. It was a real therapy for me, because I started to be interested in Monet right after that divorce. [from Kendu Isaacs in 2018]”, he says. “Monet is a real character. It was hot. It was how I felt. Monet killed [and] shooting everyone was therapeutic for me.”
New episodes of Power Book II: Ghost airs Fridays at 8:00 PM on Starz.