Last Wednesday night, with an array of stars in attendance (including the RCS team!), New York City’s Modern Museum of Art (MoMA) hosted the red carpet event for the HBO premiere of “Bessie”, starring Queen Latifah. This movie has been a labor of love and has been in the making for about 22 years. Queen Latifah was hand-picked to play the role of Bessie Smith many years ago, but everything had to fall into place just right before the story of this multifaceted singer could be done right. The young writer and director of this film Dee Rees did a fabulous job of telling Bessie Smith’s life story and bringing it to the screen. She is definitely a talent to watch out for.
The movie gives you insight into the life and times of jazz and blues singer Bessie Smith. She was depicted as a head strong, didn’t take any mess from anyone male or female type of woman. The phenomenal singer had her share of good and bad relationships with men and women. The movie depicted her struggle with the rise and fall of her career and family demons. Queen Latifah embodied this role and it was definitely meant to be played by her and no one else. She gave an outstanding and vulnerable performance as Bessie. Mo’Nique, who played her mentor and fellow singer Ma Rainey, once again gave an award winning performance. I had a chance to interview Mo’Nique on the red carpet and asked her why she chose to take on this role; her response was that the story needed to be told about these strong women.
The movie “Bessie” had a cast that was filled with very talented actors such as Khandi Alexander who plays Bessie’s antagonizing sister, Charles Dutton who plays, Pa Rainey, Tika Sumpter who was one of Bessie’s love interests and Michael Kenneth Williams who gave a strong and powerful performance as Bessie’s husband.
Other supporting actors in the movie who gave amazing performances were Tony Kittles who played the role of her brother, Bryan Greenberg, Oliver Platt and Mike Epps who was also a love interest in the movie.
The premiere had stars in attendance such as Mary J Blige, Estelle, Jamie Chung, Russell Hornsby as well as some of the cast member Mo’Nique, Khandi Alexander, Tika Sumpter, Bryan Greenberg, Tony Kittles and BET’s , Debra Lee as well as Bessie’s granddaughter, Beverly Anne Clarke walking the red carpet that night. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and thought the performances were fantastic! This is definitely a must see when the movie premieres on HBO, Saturday, May 16th at 8pm.
Photography by F.Sly
