Jordin Sparks - Movie
By Rych McCain International/Nationally Syndicated Entertainment Columnist
Jordin
Sparks
“Sparkles”
In Her Film Debut!
Photos Courtesy
of TriStar/Sony Pictures
 |
| Jordin Sparks |
Determination and preparation are the
cornerstone to achieving any desired goal. For singer/actress Jordin Sparks,
the road to success has been a journey of sweat and sacrifices. The 23yr-0ld
Phoenix, Arizona native is the youngest contestant to win “American Idol” at age 17.
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| Jordin Sparks American Idol Winner Fox-TV photo |
She then went on to become one of the
most successful contestants with a post Idol career by churning out a platinum
self-titled debut album with two top ten hits i.e., “Tattoo” and her dual with Chris Brown, “No Air” that got a Grammy® nomination. Sparks’ second album “Battlefield” reached the top ten with
the single “S.O.S”. (Let The Music Play)
hitting #1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play Chart. Sparks’ is the only Idol
alumni to have their first five singles reach the top 20. With 1.3 million
albums and 9.8 million singles sold in the U.S. alone, Sparks’ is one of the
most successful Idol alums of all time. Sparks’ made her Broadway stage debut in
the smash hit musical “In The Heights” in
August 2010 and has made several TV guest appearances.
As well as all of this may be, Sparks’ latest project will take her to the next career
level and definitely put her on the direct radar of film studio bosses,
producers and directors, She won the coveted lead role as Sparkle in the new
movie version of the 1976 original movie
“Sparkle.”
This role has allowed Sparks to showcase it all; her beauty, poise,
personality, singing and acting which she does to perfection. Jordin fully
related to the script from the start. She explains, “You know what’s crazy?
When I first got the script, I felt like the words were jumping off the page to
me. I was emotional, I was crying, I was excited, I was angry. When something
like that jumps up I was thinking whoever gets this part is going to be really,
really special. And I went in to the audition going, you don’t have any
experience so know that not getting it is a real possibility. But I thought OK
it will be good for the casting director and director to see me and who knows
what can come from this? So when they called and said I got the part, I was
beside myself because I couldn’t believe I had gotten it. And I made sure not
to know who else was auditioning. I didn’t want to know, I didn’t want to know
how many people, who it was, I probably couldn’t have handled that.”
“Sparkle.”
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| Jordin Sparks in Sparkle |
Jordin came in four times with call backs.
She reflects, “The first one was just acting with the casting director giving
me notes and doing a couple of different scenes. The second was with the
casting director and the director. The third was the screenwriter, director and
casting director and the fourth one was chemistry testing which I had never
done before.
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| Derek Luke & Jordin Sparks |
There were a few other guys and Derek Luke. There was a scene
where they have to kiss me and I was like potentially I could add a couple of
more guys to the list of people I’m kissing. I don’t just go around kissing
people I don’t know and I was so nervous. But Derek came in and we were talking
about things and discussing the script. My heart was pounding because I was
like oh my God, that’s the guy from Antwone Fisher. I’ve seen his work and we
were sitting there and they said OK are you guys ready to go in and he said
yeah, one second. Then he turned to me and said can we pray before we walk in?
And all of my anxiety, everything just went away and I said yep, OK, this is
going to work. And it was so much fun. We had a blast on set but the audition
process was so different because I had never done it before.”
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| L-R Tika Sumpter, Carmen Ejogo and Jordin Sparks |
Sparks does relate to her character’s
desire to not only be a good song writer, singer and performer but she to wants
to be a star in real life. Un-like many parents who don’t want their children
to go the show-biz route for religious reasons, the drugs, fast life and other
pitfalls, Sparks had the support of her parents from the git-go and American
Idol launched it all. What did she take from working with the late, great
Whitney Houston? Sparks lights up saying, “For me, just being in Whitney’s
presence, I love the fact that she had this knowing behind her eyes. She had
this wisdom and she wasn’t afraid to confront that.
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| Jordin Sparks & the late, great Whitney Houston |
We never had the
conversation about any of that stuff that she had gone through but it was
almost like she had this ‘yeah, I went through that and I’m hear now and that’s
OK and I’m going to keep going.’ I thought that was just great not to be
ashamed of anything that happens.”
© 2012 Rych McCain Media/Syndication tm
(You DID Hear It From
Me!)
E-Mail: feedbackrych@sbcglobal.net
