By Iain Blair

There’s a long history of musicians and rock stars trying to make it in Hollywood – everyone from The Beatles, and Elvis to Dylan, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Sting and Madonna all tried their hand at movie stardom, with varying degrees of success. Now comes Alicia Keys, the mega-selling singer-songwriter who’s in the middle of her hugely successful  worldwide As I Am tour, which is promoting her multi-platinum new album, also titled As I Am, which debuted at No. 1.
I chatted with Keys the other day about her new film career, as she’s about to make her film debut in The Secret Life of Bees, out later this summer. She stars opposite Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, and Jennifer Hudson. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the period film is co-produced by Will Smith and will be released by indie powerhouse Fox Searchlight who really knows how to market small, quirky films – remember “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Juno”?  So how’s movies different from music for the star? “ Well, in many ways it’s different and in many ways it’s the same to me,” she says. “In regards to like the focus and the drive and the dedication of it, it’s the same.  You definitely have to want to give your best performance, and have to have a certain amount of abandonment when giving it. It’s a little different because the differences, I would say, are like when I am doing the music things it’s really my vision it’s my music, it’s my lyrics, it’s my life, it’s my thoughts, it’s my pains and my joys and all of that and with film it’s you’re definitely portraying another life.  And it has traces of me in it but it’s not 100% me.”  The other big difference between movies and music?   “Time,” says Keys. “Music is always so late.  Everything is late and you’re working holidays, weekends, New Year’s, Christmas, you work any day.  And film is totally different.  Everything is super early.  You’ve got to be there at four in the morning.  It’s totally, totally more regimented!”

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