INT: Beyonce Knowles

To
describe Beyonce Knowles as beautiful would be an understatement!
She is absolutely breathtaking, stunning and captivating. Beyonce is
an international, award winning, multi talented superstar who is
blessed with surreal beauty. Beyonce
transforms from bootilicous to dreamalicious in the upcoming
smashing Broadway production turned motion picture DREAMGIRLS.

Contrary
to being the powerful and boisterous woman she is otherwise known
as, Beyonce takes on the challenging role of Deena, a submissive,
decorous and soft spoken back up singer, driven yet lurking in the
shadows of big voiced Effie. The
girls’ new agent Curtis, who launches the trio as the new
overnight sensation singing group, The Dreams, pulls her into the
spotlight as the lead singer. She
displays a remarkable evolution into stardom marking the beginning
of a music revolution, thus breaking racial barriers in mainstream

America

. Although their dreams
materialize beyond their wildest imaginations, their success and
sacrifice come with a pretty heavy price tag.

I
had the great pleasure of meeting Beyonce last week when she sat
down to discuss the challenges of stepping out of her real life
glamorous persona, minimizing her beauty and partaking in the
transcending musical film, DREAMGIRLS.
Check out what she had to say.

Beyonce
Knowles

Is it inevitable for bands to have friction?

It’s
like a marriage really. You
know you can meet someone, and it’s love at first sight and you
think it’s great and then eventually you grow and grow apart and it
doesn’t last. There’s no
way of knowing but there are certain people that are meant to be
together and when that happens you don’t have to try to love each
other. You just do
and sometimes it takes people to grow up and go through different
things, to know themselves, to love themselves in order to have
healthy relationships.

This is a really tricky part for you.
Larry Mark said that you were popping too much.
Critics who are saying that you’re not THAT good but
you’re really not supposed to be THAT good have already
misunderstood you. Talk
about taking that risk.

I
knew it. I knew the risk
before I took it. I mean
I read the script and the movie is like the script.
I knew that Deena was not the underdog, I knew that she
didn’t sing “And I’m Telling You…” I knew that you know,
all of our parts are very important.
It’s an ensemble cast but I knew that she wasn’t the lead.
It’s not about her life and I didn’t care about that because
I don’t have to prove that I can sing, I have 9 Grammy awards and I
don’t have to prove that I’m a star because I already am so I wanted
to prove that I can act. And
I thought this part was incredible because out of every character it
has the biggest range and it’s the least like me.

I
mean, I’m way more powerful and bigger than the character and way
stronger, and in control so it was a challenge for me and exciting
for me to show myself in a different light.
My biggest concern was people getting Deena confused with me
because from the outside looking in you see that you know, I started
out in a group, became a solo artist and my drive and Deena’s drive
are very similar but it really stops there.
Deena started out growing up in the projects with her mother.
Back then it was harder to be a singer and actor in America
than it is now. Because
she didn’t have a father she allowed Curtis to control her because
she was searching for that father figure and she completely lost
herself and was a puppet and she was ok with that because she didn’t
want go back to the projects.

As
opposed to me, who grew up with both of my parents, went to private
school. I’m my own
Curtis; I’m in control of my everything. I write my own songs and
the whole nine and the lead singer because of my talent.
And now all the top artists are trying to be like the R &
B artists. Now, the more
soulful you are the better as opposed to the more controlled you
are, so it’s a different time. So
my personal need of success, you know when we lost on star search
when I was nine; I went back to my house with my family.
When Deena lost, Deena went back to the projects.

So
her desire and her passion for success was different so I didn’t
play this part like me. I’m
nowhere on the screen which is why I wanted to lose 20 pounds
because I wanted to lose every trace of what I’m known for and why I
sat and worked so hard with an acting coach, why when I did the
songs, I didn’t treat them like performances.
The singing was a piece of cake; learn the choreography,
piece of cake. The hard
thing was, because I didn’t have my voice to depend on instead I had
to do something else. I
had to go through and make sure Deena had pain behind her eyes and
even though she had the lashes and the glamour, there was something
deeper there.

So
we went through all of the performances and treated them like
dialogue and I filled up my mind with all of these painful things to
keep her interesting. And
I didn’t have a lot lines and that’s fine but I had to say a lot
without saying anything, which was really hard.
For instance when Effie finds out she’s not going to be the
lead singer, I say maybe four words but I have to show without
saying anything, that I’m completely sad for my friend who I love, a
little bit happy and excited ’cause I want to be a star and confused
and angry ’cause no one knew. I
had to do all of these things all in an expression so because
everything I did was very small; it was a lot of work.

Larry
Mark mentioned that he had the impossible task of toning down your
looks. Was it fun trying
to look less amazing?

It
was very, very fun. It
was I mean, I didn’t even think about it. It was part of the
character. It was fun
’cause I did the screen test and they came to my rehearsal and he
saw me performing and I don’t perform anything like Deena, I don’t
sing anything like her. He
was like, ok I don’t know about this one, I don’t know if she can
play Deena, I don’t know if people can take that image away and see
you as young Deena. So I
went and found the ugliest wig and ugliest dress I could find.
That was really fun.

Was
it enjoyable to just not worry about getting dressed up?

Yeah
I mean I do it all the time. When
it’s appropriate I dress up and when it’s not inappropriate I don’t.

I hear Diana Ross is a fan of yours?

Well
I met her and she was very, very nice which made me feel great
because I want her to like me because I like her so much.
But I also like this movie and it’s about her but the things
that happened with Effie and Deena I don’t think that ever happened
to her and I think she’s stronger than Deena.

Can you draw any similarities between the group Dreamgirls which you play
part of on screen and Destiny’s Child?

No
because the dynamics of our group are different.
The history they have, the pain that they have is way more
dramatic. We vacation
together, we spend birthdays together, we really love each other and
this is so different from that group.

Are
you a big Supremes fan?

Oh
yeah. I love the
Supremes. I mean we grew
up watching videotapes of the Jackson Five, the Temptations, and the
Supremes and now I don’t have to go back and watch all of that stuff
all over again which was fascinating.

Do you have a favorite song?

My
favorite Diana Ross song is Love Hangover and my favorite Supremes
song is Love Child.

What was it like working with Jennifer Hudson?

When
I told people I was doing this movie, they were like, “oh wow
that’s incredible, but who’s playing Effie”?
And if she had to sing And I’m Telling You.
She had so much pressure, never ever doing an album, never
doing a movie before in her life and having to live up to the
standing ovation that Jennifer Holliday got every single night.
She has to live up to that song and the part where she sings
“and you, and you”. I
could not imagine that. It’s
incredible that she did what she did and she was amazing.

It’s
my favorite part in the movie. It
gives me chills. I’m
proud of her, she deserves it, she was very sweet and she is
blessed. And I can only pray that she will maintain that same sweet
innocent young woman that she is.
She felt like a little sister to me ’cause I mean I had my
first single when I was 15. I’ve
been doing it for 10 years, I’ve seen a lot of talented people and
I’m just so happy for her and I think she’s going to have an
incredible career.

What do you find more enjoyable, music or acting?

Both.
Because I did this movie, I felt so caged, because for so
long I was holding back so much that I was overly expressive on my
album. I mean I’m
belting out notes, singing everything really high, grunting and
screaming literally and everything is so strong and so much attitude
because Deena was so weak. So
I’m able to use my music to kind of…. I felt like someone that had
been left out of the cage. So
it’s like therapy for me and they inspire each other.