Fantasia was sitting on top of the world and preparing to give birth to her second child in December when rumors about her upcoming film role as the Queen of Gospel, Mahalia Jackson started circulating. Last week, reports came out that Mahalia’s estate and the movie’s producers were unhappy with Fantasia for being pregnant by a married man and not telling anyone about the pregnancy until 4 months in, respectively, Fantasia was shocked because she claimed no one had ever talked to her about it. Earlier today, she called into the Wendy Williams show to clear the air about her role in the new movie, her belief that filming was delayed due to a lack of investors and…wait…is she still with Antwaun Cook?Check out the interview excerpts and video below:
“First I will say when it came across I was ready to walk to New York. I almost went into labor because it was the first time that I’ve heard anything about that. I haven’t spoken to the family. I haven’t heard anything from the family. So that was my first time hearing anything about it. I almost went into labor.
On if she’s still up for the movie role as Mahalia Jackson
Here’s the thing, I haven’t heard anything from the producers. We began to talk about it October, November in 2010 and we were supposed to start filming in January. So what I did was I started studying this woman because — first of all this woman is amazing, she’s anointed, she’s a powerhouse, and I feel the same way about her as I feel about Aretha Franklin. And they came to me, and I knew there was a lot of A-Listers who wanted to play this part and were trying out for the part, but because they came to me I wanted to give this woman my all. I began to gain weight, study her. Then they call us back in January ad said the investors backed out, so they were waiting on investors to I guess put into the movie. I was a little disappointed when they called and said that but I still watched a lot of her DVDs, listened to a lot of her music, and I was still gaining the weight because I was believing that God was going to bring this back around and we would still be able to do this movie because a lot of people needed to know about this great woman. I’ve never heard anything from them.”
“There were no contracts signed and there was no set date so when this came out I jumped up in my bed and said, ‘I hope this didn’t come from my producer,’ because again there’s no black and white, there’s nothing in black and white. We waited on them, they said the money didn’t come through. So I was a little pissed off because I wanted to make the family proud, and most of all I wanted to make Mahalia Jackson proud.”
On Antwaun
You’re funny! I’m not focusing on that today, I’m talking about the whole movie, the Mahalia Jackson, ’cause I’m tired of people putting lies out about me. My name is all I have and my word is my bond. I feel like if people do things like that, if other producers want to do movies — even with The Color Purple people. Everybody said, ‘Well you missed shows you didn’t do this, you didn’t do that –
Wendy yells: Are you still with Antwaun!?
Um… *hesitation* Mmm..I’m not gonna talk about that. I’ll come and talk to you about that on the show.
Source: necolebitchie.com
