James Brown’s highly anticipated biopic, “Get On Up” is set to hit theaters nationwide on August 1st. Starring “42” actor, Chadwick Boseman, Dan Aykroyd, Jill Scott, Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, the film will chronicle Brown's early days living in poverty in Georgia, his rise to fame and his years as one of pop music's most influential icons.
During an interview on HuffPost Live host Caitlyn Becker on Monday, singer and actress Jill Scott admitted portraying the role of Brown’s second wife Deidre "Deedee" Jenkins was quite challenging.
“We had to approach it very gingerly. The family is definitely involved in this film, and we didn’t want this to be the highlight of his existence,” the Grammy Award-winner said. “We look around and see pictures of James Brown when he went to prison…and they’re talking about drugs, but there’s so much more to this man. And when we approached this particular scene where there was some spousal abuse we were very careful about it because we don’t want to taint this man’s image or his legacy.”
“So we’re very ginger, but you feel it. I definitely did. I had a stunt coordinator, but I had to let go in order to actually show what this was,” she added. “So I got pretty banged up and I’m pretty proud of that, actually…It was kind of hard to play someone that loves someone so deeply and has this abusive relationship. You kind of have to forgive and also not judge. This is not my life.”
Check out more of Jill Scott’s HuffPost Live interview in the clip above.
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