Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories

I did the following interview with singer-actress Jill Scott a few years ago on the eve of an acclaimed Lifetime movie she starred in called Sins of the Mother.  In it she plays a recovering alcoholic trying to mend the fences broken between herself and her daughter, who’s now a mother herself, years before.  In the depths of her addiction Scott’s character Nona emotionally and physically abandonded her daughter, Shay.  The daughter, played by Nicole Beharie, has become estranged from her mother.  When Shay visits her mother the old wounds get reeopend and the story becomes one of forgiveness, redemption, discovery, and transformation as the two women work through the pain to find a new truth.  Scott’s portrayal of Nona rings absolutely natural and authentic.  The movie was adapted from a well-received novel, Orange Mint and Honey, by Omaha native Carleen Brice.  You can find on this blog stories I’ve done about Carleen and her work.

Jill Scott Interview

©by Leo Adam Biga

LAB: In preparation for your role as Nona in the Lifetime movie Sins of the Mother did you do much research?

JS: “Well, honestly I put the energy out there that I wanted to talk to people who are recovering and oddly enough I just kept meeting people. I met a lady on a plane, I worked with an artist on a project and I found out they were in recovery and had been for 10 years, and I just kept meeting people – at the grocery store, Target and Walmart. This is the reason why I love these places. You just get an opportuniy to meet so many different people just by talking about the weather. And people who are in recovery I find tend to really want to talk about their growth and their process. So it was pretty weird the way it just all started coming together, just random people on the plane and in stores and friends of friends over dinner.

“It’s not even I was bringing it up to find out anything. I didn’t even have to mention it. It’s really true what Thoreau says: ‘When a man truly commits, the universe will conspire to assure his success.” And that’s what it felt like. It seemed like everywhere I went I kept meeting people that wanted to talk about their recovery. Eight different people in all.”

LAB: As your character of Nona is written and as you play her she’s someone who really embodies the whole one day at a time philosophy.  I mean, she’s just focused on doing the best she can, one day at a time.

JS: “Period. And I think that’s the real truth of recovery. It is a process, it is an every day, every hour, every difficult situation, every happiness. You get happy, you want to drink. If something stresses you or vexes you, you want to drink. I learned a lot about that particular part of recovery, about how it’s ongoing and it does not stop.”

LAB: How did the project come to you and were you aware of the novel Orange Mint and Honey upon which the movie is based?

JS: “No, not at all. My agent, who I absolutely adore, mentioned it to me. She sent me the script. She said, ‘I think you’re going to like this.’ I read it, and believe me I read a lot of scripts, and I turn down quite a bit and some things I don’t get but this was something I really wanted to do. I enjoyed playing a grown-up, a genuine grown-up, and I felt Nona was a grown-up person actually facing her demons. It’s just my opinion but when you face yourself then you become an adult. As an adult person you make an effort to look at yourself, pay attention to yourself, analyze yourself, check yourself and hopefully better yourself.”

LAB: So did you end up reading Orange Mint and Honey?

JS: “I did not. Sometimes I will read the book but this time I didn’t. I try not to actually. You start tweaking things that really you may not need to or that you shouldn’t. I read the script and I come up with my own conclusions based on my research and the script itself and then after that it’s just communication with the director, because more than likely they’ve done far more research then I have, they’ve been on board before I was. That’s pretty much my process.”

LAB: In the movie Shay does not readily accept Nona’s amends and it’s heartbreaking for Nona.

JS: “That’s probably the worst part of it all for people who are in recovery. When you actually make the decision to apologize whole heartedly and have that person not accept it, it’s almost like a block in your recovery, you can’t seem to move that much forward without the understanding and I think that’s Nona’s difficulty. She loves her daughter and she really wants her to understand and to respect her growth and accept her apology. Nona knows what she did was wrong.”

LAB: The movie makes a real effort to explore the whole mother-daughter relationship dynamic.

JS: “Anytime you can explore that it’s cool. I grew up with my mother and my grandmother and just to watch them – the older versions of my mother and I now, that was an interesting ride, just the bucking of Alpha women in one house. And now as I’m an adult just the bucking of my mother and I. We love each other very much, but there’s a time to go home, there is.”

Jill Scott and Nicole Beharie in a scene of healing from Sins of the Mother

LAB: What did you find most challenging in getting your character right and in realizing the script?

JS: “Uhhh, trying to make sure it wasnt sappy. I think if you tell someone there’s a story of redemption or a story of someone on the road to redemption the mind can take you to a place where it’s going to be a tear fest or sappy or a chick flick and maybe there’s some of that somewhere in there but it’s not the whole meat of the story. And for me I didnt want to make Nona a bleeding heart because Shay is right, her feelings are fair and just, she had a difficult childhood because of her mother.”

LAB: You and Nicole Beharie have some very tough emotional scene together. Did you two do any specific prep work together to prepare for those moments?

JS: “No, as a matter of fact we didn’t. In the beginning we were tense with each other, you know just feeling each other out. I think it was good for both of us just to stand back and kind of watch each other and be a little tense, like the characters. We kept ourselves slightly friendly until our characters were warmer towards each other, and then we got warmer towards each other.”

LAB: So when you’re working on a project like this, do you leave yourself open to self-discovery and growth? Is that part of the attraction of what you do as an actress, as an artist?  Does your life and art inform each other?

JS: “Well, I’m now a mother and when I did the film my baby was newborn, we had just come through that whole transition of not sleeping, me being sleep deprived. I think I began to understand by playing Nona how much you can love a child and how it just doesn’t go away. As a new mother you don’t know what to expect, you don’t know anything except that you have to feed this baby, you have responsibilties, and when the love kicks in it’s life altering, even if you make mistakes.

“I actually fell down the steps with my son a few weeks ago, and that whole forgiving myself process was a trip because he was fine, I was the one that ended up black and purple. But I went through that whole process of, Oh, man, I shouldn’t have worn those slippers, I should have been paying attention better, all of those things. There’s a certain level of guilt that lends itself to you as a parent.

“Anytime I play anyone I learn something a little bit more about life and a lot of times about myself but mostly it’s about life and I think that’s a cool part.”

LAB: Did you have any trepidations about playing any of the scenes, particularly the one in the church where Shay calls out her mother in public before the assembled congregation?

JS: “No, I didn’t honestly because I’m a believer in the director. I like to work with people I can put my trust in and if it’s too much I’ll hear it and I look for that. I like to hear from one to ten. ‘I think that was on seven, I’m going to push it back to five, are you comfortable with that?’ That’s just the way that I like to communicate.”

LAB:  Your acting career has really taken off the last few years but it’s something you’ve been working on for awhile.

JS: “It’s 15 years in the making. I’m not upset at all about my journey as an actor. I’ve been enjoying it. I did Rent (in a touring stage production) and after Rent I put out an album and then the music took off but it was working for me before as well in theater and now from television to independent filma to major films, back to television and major films in one year. It’s working now, I get to do the things I really enjoy, so there’s no complaints over here.”

LAB:  I know you’re very loyal to your Philly roots because Philadelphia is where it all started for you

JS: “My girlfriend and I used to put together an artistic night of words and sound, all kinds of people would come through to sing or dance or do a monologue or perform their poetry. We did it every other week faithfully.”

Related articles

• On “Who is Jill Scott?” (purposeinseason.com)
• Drake, Run D.M.C., And Jill Scott Added To ‘Made In America’ Festival (5min.com)
• Jill Scott hairstyle: The new soul superstar goes for the big chop with short natural afro (thegrio.com)
• LISTEN: Jill Scott’s “Can’t Explain” Remixed by Ca$e Boogie (rodonline.typepad.com)