Brandy is all about facing her fears in her newest role.
The music legend, 45, stars as Belinda, a professor and wife who is expecting her second child after a previous stillbirth, in the psychological horror film “The Front Room.” When Belinda’s mother-in-law, Solange (Kathryn Hunter) moves in with Belinda and her husband (Andrew Burnap), strange occurrences begin happening at home — forcing the couple to make unexpected decisions.
Brandy has appeared in scary movies before (“I Still Know What You Did Last Summer”) but “The Front Room” represents a new challenge for the singer-actress. The “Almost Doesn’t Count” singer tells theGrio in an exclusive interview that she took on the role in part because it “scared the hell out of me.”
“That’s one of the things that attracted me to Belinda,” Brandy says. “The role was so different than anything that I had ever done and I wanted to see if I could pull it off. I wanted to see if I could expand my range, my depth as an actress, and see what can happen working with Kathryn Hunter, Andrew Burnap and [directors] Sam and Max Eggers.”
“It was a great environment, great atmosphere for me to just be safe and free enough to try,” she adds.
Brandy does more than “try” in the film; she excels in every scene she’s in, portraying fear, anger, confusion, hope and more wide-ranging emotions with authenticity. The “Full Moon” singer’s character is pregnant for the majority of the film, an experience that Brandy says is new, but also familiar. The actress’ real-life daughter, Sy’rai Iman Smith, is 22, but Brandy remembers what it was like to carry her all those years ago.
“That belly [in the movie] made me think about me being pregnant when I was 23 having my first baby,” Brandy shares. “It was beautiful. I loved being pregnant. It was a beautiful experience. But it just seemed like I just was pregnant the entire movie, didn’t it?”
“My belly didn’t even go down when I wasn’t pregnant,” Brandy adds with a laugh.
The actress worked closely with co-star Hunter in the film as Hunter’s Solange takes a special interest in Belinda’s pregnancy. Brandy tells theGrio that their connection on set developed naturally due to the script.
“Well, it’s all in the writing. I think the writing was brilliant. It helped to guide us in what to do and how to do it,” Brandy says. “We were very much close to Sam and Max, who kept an eye on us and helped us through everything.”
Brandy adds that she and Hunter “had a special bond when the cameras were off.”
“I was able to get to know her on a different level, and I was able to try things and react to things that she would do naturally, because I just felt safe to do that with her,” the singer says.
“The Front Room” hits theaters on September 6.