the article:
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is a woman with an obvious fondness for the worlds of cameras and make-believe. In our rendention of Before Sunset the veritable triple threat takes a star turn as a stunning socialite on a clandestine rendevous with an impossibly sexy polo player, played by the equally stunning Adam Rodriguez. Why Rodriguez? Well, to understand that you's have to understand where Janet is at this point in her life. " I'm so fortunate," she coos in a voice so honeyed it gives license to use the word mellifluous. "I'm a free agent. I'm not trapped in a contract where I'm unhappy. I'm very free, and I love this feeling. I can do whatever I want."
And what Janet wanted, in this case atleast, was the 35-year-old Bronx Cuban and Butter Rican heartthrob of CSI: Miami fame. When Rodriguez heard Janet had requested him to play her love interest on our shoot, he was beyond flattered. On meeting her, he says she has a "genuine sweetness. It's a beautiful thing to see someone with that kind of lifelong success hold on to something that most people lose so easily when put in the spotlight." Malik Yoba, her costar in both Why did I get married films, echos that sentiment. "Janet is a pleasure to work with," says Yoba. This is one of those compliments that could be considered and innocous throwaway, until you consider the timing: Jackson returned to the set of Why did I get married too? just one day after shouldering the unbearable weight of burying her brother Michael. "She still managed to be really engaging," Yoba states. "She spent a lot of time in her trailer when we weren't on set. And I think, given the circumstances, that's understandable."
These days Jackson is using that legendary work ethic to focus on her acting career. This one's been a little tricky to pull off. Her early TV appearances are seen as a resume glitch-bumps on the road that preceded her more that 20-year stint as a 100 times platinum, multiple award-winning recording artist. Let me put that in context. Jackson's control, Rythm Nation 1814 and Janet. established the singer-dancer imprimatur standard in pop culture we now take for granted.
SO when you're thinking of asking Miss Jackson, "What have you done for me lately?" remember that Briteny, Ciara and Beyonce live in the house that Janet built. But she has since moved on, and that's even more obvious now. With turns in Tyler Perry's why Did I...and it's sequal (which is out this month on DVD/Blu-ray), Janet continues to refine those acting abilities she displayed early on in the tole of the ever affable hood tween Penny on Good times. Next January she shares the screen with heavyweaight talents Kerry Washington and Kimberly Elice in perry's highlt anticipated film adaption of Ntzoke Shangs FCGWHCSWTRIE-otherwise known as the Holy Grail of rites of passage plays for an entire generation of black women. It's a move that finally should reestablish Jackson as what she is: a veteran thespian who also happened to sell more that 100 million records.
Of course, the cynical among us are bound to see Jackson's decision to focus on her acting as the default move, a necessary image rebranding after the lackluster sales of her last album, Discipline, which failed to even go gold. But-and this is the delicious thing about the 44-year-old Jackson -she really is busy enjoying the sweet spot of her power decade to give a ish about haters. "Why can't each and every project live up to it's own standard?" She questions calmly. "Why does this film that Steven Spielberg made have to have bigger numbers than the last? I mean, if it does, great but still, judge it for itself instead of this "You have to do better and better."
"That's that 40ish," she says, chuckling at her reasoned perspective. "There comes a time when you don't give an eff what people say or think. You just do your thing because it's finally about you, and not in a selfish way but in a great way." For the record, she is, at least by the estimation of those who swear a woman in her forties is well past the age of desreability, defying all kinds of convention. In addtion to doing two back-to-back films, Janet has been spotted in the tabs with a short new do and a handsome boo, Wissam Al Mana, a Quatari, who is almost a decade her junior-a fact that would never get any mentions at all if Janet were a man. "It's horrible. It's really awful," she says. "and I have to believe it was a man who started that. Mother always raised us to believe that age was just a number. All of us-my sisters, brothers-we'll just tell you our ages because it's all about where you are mentally and how you feel about yourself."
To be sure, Jackson has no intention of limiting her dreams based on anybody elses expectations. Music is still very much a part of her mix-she headlined the sixteenth annual Essence Music Festival in New Orleans, and "Nothing" the song she sang and helped compose for Why did I get Married too? sound track landed on the urban adult contemporary and Jazz charts. And True You (Karen Hunter Publications), a self-help tome that peppers diet and exercise tips with anecdotes from Jackson's life on her hard-earned and now unassailable self-esteem, hits the shelves this fall. The book reveals that those assaults on her self-esteem came early.
"When I was doing Good Times they wanted me to bind my chest. I started developing at a young age. They didn't tell me that they were going to do this. They just did it as I was getting dressed for the first show. So under the little sweatshirt, that Band-Aid is wrapped around my chest to make me look flatter. That plays tricks here," she says, pointing to her head. "You're an innocent kid, and you immediately start thinking how you look naturally isn't good enough. It really effected me. Up until now. I wanted to write this book because I wanted kids to have something to read and know that they are beautiful as they are."
This aura of self-acceptance makes her content to write the script to her very own life. "It took me a good minute to get here. It really did. But I love my life. I only wish I had this confidence when I was younger." She thinks about this for a long minute and flashes that trademark Jackson smile. "Then again, everything happens for a reason," she says with a laugh. "Maybe thats why it didn't hit me then. I'd probably have been hell on wheels if it had"
