Mary J. Blige wanted to ‘lose herself’ in new movie role

Mary J. Blige didn’t want her singing abilities to be the reason she was offered a role in movie Mudbound.
The 46-year-old artist is known for her powerful vocals which have been showcased on hits including Family Affair, No More Drama and Stronger.
She’s also showed off her acting chops too, appearing in TV series Entourage and 2012 film Rock of Ages, but her latest role in this year’s (17) drama Mudbound, in which she plays family matriarch Florence Jackson opposite the likes of Carey Mulligan and Garrett Hedlund, was a whole new ball game.
“Singers are given roles so easily because they’re singers and I didn’t want that to be why I got roles anymore,” Mary told website IndieWire. “I don’t want to sing like I did in Rock of Ages, I want to work hard and just kind of lose myself in it.”
Discussing how unrecognisable she is in the feature, she added, “That was the goal. I don’t want people to see Mary J. Blige at all. I wanted to disappear.”
It took a lot of preparation to get into character for Mary, especially as during the time of production she was going through her own personal problems. The star filed for divorce from her estranged husband Martin ‘Kendu’ Isaacs in July 2016, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason, but she has since admitted the marriage had been strained and falling apart for some time before they split up.
“The acting was a challenge – just being a mother and having to find that wife that had a husband (Rob Morgan) who cared about her, because I was going through my own challenges and it was hard (to get in the headspace) of trying to be intimate with this man,” Mary said of her Mudbound role. “It’s one thing to be this emotional person and have all this stuff, but it’s another thing to transfer it into this character and make this character come to life, so I got a coach to help me do all that.”