The Source Magazine was on the red carpet for the New York premiere of Lifetime’s Betty and Coretta at Tribeca Cinemas this week. Among those in attendance: Angela Basset, Mary J. Blige, Ruby Dee, Lindsey Owen Pierre, Malik Yoba, Cherise Booth. Other attendees included Tyra Banks, and Samantha Black. Betty & Coretta tells the dual real-life stories of Coretta Scott King (Bassett) and Dr. Betty Shabazz (Blige), wives respectively of Dr. Martin Luther King (Yoba, New York Undercover) and Malcolm X (Pierre, The Killing Yard), as they create an unbreakable life-long bond after their husbands’ tragic assassinations. Kicking off Lifetime’s Black History Month celebration, Betty & Coretta will premiere Saturday, February 2, at 8:00pm ET/PT.
Q: Did you tap into from your personal experiences to play this role of Betty Shabazz?
Mary J. Blige: I drew from my own hard, hard life experiences and just you know, no matter how bad it gets, when you’re trying to get somewhere and prosper, things are going to continue to pull you back. Just keep your head up, keep going, keep striving, and that’s, you know, just from my life period in a whole.
Q: Why was it important to executive produce and star in this film?
Mary J. Blige: Well, it was important to executive produce it because I had no idea the women were friends in the first place, and the script, you know, when the script was brought to me, the script was so amazing, you know, it was brought to me by my friend, it was such a good script; it touched on women being really really good friends, you know, and getting each other through things. That’s what made me really want to do it.
Q: What most surprised you about Betty?
Mary J. Blige: The fact that she could dance. She was all about dancing and she had a sense of humor through all the hell she was going through. She was the one with the jokes, when Coretta was the one that was kind of serious and sad, you know, after Martin died. Betty was the one pulling everybody through, laughing, dancing, you know.
Q: Why did you want to take on this role as an actress?
Mary J. Blige: As an actress, acting is a very hard job to do, and you have to study it, study your craft. You have to be serious about it, if you really want it, and actors are amazing.
Q: And working with Angela, how was that experience?
Mary J. Blige: Well, first of all, I’m one of Angela’s biggest fans, so that was a dream come true for me, and it was just, wow, that’s all I can say, wow. She’s an amazing woman.
Q: What was your favorite scene?
Angela Basset: Just meeting, our characters meeting for the first time. Also, one of our get togethers where we got to eat cheesecake, that was a pretty good scene.
Q: And what was the biggest challenge of working on this project?
Angela Basset: Trying to capture her, her, her voice and her, you know it’s almost as if she had such control of herself. She’s very strong, very present, but control. So, trying to get that without, because I can be so animated sometimes, I think, but trying to capture that, that essence of her.
Q: What was it like working with Mary J. Blige?
Angela Basset: Wonderful, and looking forward to doing it again, we start again on a new project tomorrow, “Black Nativity,” so I loved it. Mary always gives you her heart, she always leads with truth, so we had a phenomenal time and it was great to have, you know, down time together and you know, watch the presidential debates and then we could just, you know, just go at it, discuss it and stuff, so I enjoyed our time together.
