Emmy Award-winning actress Lynn Whitfield is nothing if she’s not memorable. From turns in the HBO biopic “The Josephine Baker Story” to the “Fatal Attraction”-esque “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” to the critically acclaimed “Eve’s Bayou,” Whitfield has breathed life into a diverse slate of characters, all of them memorable and engaging.
Her latest role as Lillian Winter,
a domineering mom/career-minded evangelist in the Codeblack Entertainment film “Mama, I Want To Sing!” paves the way for yet another landmark performance.
UIM: Why were you interested in playing this role?
Lynn Whitfield: When Charles Randolph-Wright, the director, and Jeff Clanagan, the producer, called and said, “Hey, we’re doing ‘Mama, I Want to Sing!’” I respected it because it was one of our classics. But, more importantly, when they told me how they were updating the script, sort of making it more contemporary, with the mother not just being the wife of a preacher but also a television evangelist, that character was very interesting to me. As we started conversations and I thought about it I expressed my desire to present the imperfection of all of that and not to actually romanticize it. Charles and Jeff agreed.
So you looked forward to making this character your own?
 LW: Actors are always attracted to a challenge, something they haven’t played; something you feel that you can really be creative with and have fun with. I thought that Lillian Winter was a character that I could enjoy doing.
How did you prepare for the role?
LW: I’m a Christian person so I’ve seen a lot of evangelists and been blessed by a lot of their messages. But I’ve also observed some of the missteps of some of our evangelicals so I had some ideas of what I thought would be important to do in terms of how to approach it. I also worked on sort of a different speech pattern from what I normally have. I kind of drop off at the end of sentences and things like that and in preaching, it’s a different approach. You kind of want to get every word and every thought out there clearly. Thirdly, I sort of worked on the idea that I wanted to convey through this character and actually wrote the finale sermon with one of the producers. It was really rather interesting to find ways to make adjustments.
In what ways, if any, did you identify with the character?
LW: This is a character who got so involved in her career that she kind of lost touch with who her children really were and, though I really have made every effort in my life and career to balance it and not do that with my daughter, who is 16, I certainly learned from the mistakes of the character. It’s a subtlety when you experience the character flaws of a person that you’re playing. You sort of learn from them. The same thing happened with Josephine Baker and the woman in “Thin Line.” You just learn. Acting is such a privileged profession in that you get to be insane and not be committed; you get to be a criminal and not be put in jail; you can be an absolute rock star even though you’ve never really done it in life. In this finale sermon I wanted to convey certain things about forgiveness and judgment and stuff that I think I needed to learn. I sort of had one of those cathartic experiences myself. It was an interesting place where the character and the person merged.
What would you consider the overriding message of this film?
LW: Standing in judgment and being unforgiving and self-centered can really stand in the way of your spiritual growth as a person…. It’s all about family, not standing in the way of something good and strength of the family unit.
There has been much talk about faith-based films like “Mama.” How would you define faith-based films?
LW: Creative expression is so personal for each director, each actor. It just depends on the way it’s being handled by the artists themselves and by the company deciding at the very beginning what is the purpose of this piece of work. All of it should entertain. It’s called show business. Faith-based films should entertain just as any others. Now faith-based is an umbrella for family films, some of it for Christian-based films, some of it just for what was called urban but urban without the profanity and the vulgarity. But for me faith-based films means that everybody in the family should be able to take something away from it and I think that at the end of the day it should mirror things that are good for us as well as inspire us to be all we can be and bring us closer to all that’s good and all that’s God. I think that as we go along with the catchphrase of “faith-based” we’ll become more specific. I hope that it doesn’t just become another brand for show business.
By Rhonda F. Baraka
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