Brandy Interviews with Galmour.com

Tell me about your role on The Soul Man—how did you get involved?
Brandy: It's interesting because I wanted to be on it for a while because I love Cedric the Entertainer. His comedy is just awesome, so I've always wanted to do the show, and the schedules this time made that happen. I play a woman who is part of his background singers and dancers, and we get back together for this huge event. It's just that there's one little problem: I'm nine months pregnant. [Laughs] I'm basically lying about it because I don't want the pregnancy to get in the way of me being a part of the reunion, so the comedy is so fun because I'm telling everybody I'm not pregnant, and clearly I'm pregnant.

So what does your character do to conceal it?
Brandy: She says that she ate too much, that she's just full. It's funny. Her name is Rita, and it's so different than anything I've ever done. It's just so much fun being able to go as far as I want to go with it and the belly and everything makes it all funny.

You've done music and acting. Do you have a favorite? 
Brandy: I love music. That's my first love. I'm actually going to start working on that full-time very soon, but I love acting as well. It satisfies a different part of who I am. I love to pretend, to imagine, try new things, work with different people, and just see how far I can go. I love my character on The Game, Chardonnay. She's awesome; I love that character. That was a coming-out role for me—it was the first role that I really settled into as an adult, and so many doors have opened since that character. I just want to continue to do comedy. Comedy, I'm discovering, is my niche. It's what I'm born to do, so I would love to have my own sitcom one day in the future.

If you had a dream sitcom, what would it entail?
Brandy: I don't know exactly what the character would be, but I would love to play a main character and then play different characters as well. I would want for it to be a sitcom, multicamera, audience—that's definitely a dream. It's in the works, so...it's closer than everybody thinks it is.

Awesome! So do you prefer roles like The Soul Man where it involves music with acting?
Brandy: I'm open to different parts. I would love to do something where I can sing and act at the same time. That would be awesome, but that's the beautiful part about acting—you get to play somebody other than yourself. So, I'm open to people who can't sing, people who can, people that sing a little bit, or people that sing a lot.

Any new music that you're into lately? 
Brandy: I did get attached to Lorde. I love her music and her harmonies. She's just a great young artist. She's not afraid, and her music is fearless. I did get attached to her, but right now that's about it.

So for young artists out there, what's your advice for having a lasting career?
Brandy: I think it's just staying true to yourself and staying true to your passion. Following your gut. A lot of people in this business tell you what you should do and what you shouldn't do. And not to say you shouldn't take advice, especially if you have honest people around you, but at the end of the day, it's your gut that tells you what you should do and you should listen to that. Like I said, stay true to yourself because it goes a long way. If you don't know who you are, who are you really?

Source: http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/blogs/obsessed/2014/03/brandy-norwood-sitcom-the-soul.html