Beyoncé Knowles has already caused a stir with the pop trio she fronts, Destiny's Child. Now she's out to seduce moviegoers by playing Mike Myers's sidekick in Austin Powers in Goldmember. But your typical hot-headed megacelebrity hyphenate she is not.
________________________________________
Most people expect Beyoncé Knowles to be a diva. She is the lead singer of the chart-topping, finger-wagging, hip-shaking, Grammy-winning Destiny's Child, which became big when their song "No, No, No" went to number one in 1997, then exploded in 2000 when they contributed 'Independent Women Part 1" to the Charlie's Angels soundtrack and released the top-selling album Survivor.
But Knowles is not a diva. The-Houston, Texas, native does attack those take-charge, take-no-guff anthems to do right by women with a smokin' self-assuredness that belie her age--20. But past those sinewy curves, whiplash body moves and teasing delivery, there is an endearing, almost innocent character inside that sets her apart from today's horde of narcissistic. nasal, midriff-baring divas.
I meet Beyoncé Knowles at a swanky Beverly Hills restaurant during the off-hours so as to avoid autograph hounds. She arrives early and alone. She's dressed casually in jeans and a T-shirt and with little makeup on. She comes off as unaffected and unguarded. Now and then she breaks into a fit of giggles. Her wide-set eyes seem to drink everything in. She catches the interest of nearly every waiter, most of whom seem nervous in her presence. One poor soul even accidentally calls her Bernice before retreating to the kitchen where he. one suspects, will slap himself silly.
Knowles laughs it off. "My name is pronounced like fiancée, "she says. "Growing up I got called Be-yo-NEE-chee. Bee-YO-nee. For years I hated my name and thought it was made up. which most people think it probably is. But it's really my mother's family name."
Beyoncé has been telling people how to pronounce her name since age seven, when she made her auspicious singing debut at a talent show. She was a shy girl, but once onstage, her ruminative nature vanished and she became a blazing, full-on showboat. The transformation so shocked her parents. Mathew and Tina, that they half-jokingly wondered. ".Who is that child?" Mathew. a successful salesman. had the good idea to form a group with his daughter and five other girls. They rented old Supremes and Jackson 5 videos to study the singers' moves. Beyoncé's mother, Tina, designed costumes for the girls, styled their hair and did their makeup. Mathew got them bookings at local civic events, malls and grocery stores.
By the time Beyoncé was a teenager she was a full-fledged performer. But according to her, it was not an especially daunting time. "Sure, I watched 'Punky Brewster,'" says Knowles, "but when other kids were out playing, I wanted to be inside writing songs and practicing dance routines. It got so people didn't want to come to the house anymore because we'd make them buy two-dollar tickets and then do shows for them."
In the mid-'90s, the group, which was now a foursome comprised of Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson, was signed to Elektra Records, then dropped. Next Columbia Records signed them, and the band took off. Their single "No, No, No" shot to number one and the song "Killing Time," featured on the Men in Black soundtrack, became a hit. In 1999 their album The Writing's on the Wall propelled them into the stratospheres. That year, no gym or nightclub could afford not to heavily rotate at least a couple of the diabolically catchy singles from the album.
Trouble in paradise brewed, though, when group members Roberson and Luckett reportedly asked Mathew Knowles for a bigger slice of the pie. Knowles replaced them with Farrah Franklin and Michelle Williams. Just months later, Franklin also left, spurring speculation that nepotism ran rampant in the band. Whatever the truth is, the press got wind of the bad blood and some of the members ended up in court. This year, just after Destiny's Child won a Grammy for the title song from their multi-platinum third album, Survivor, Roberson and Luckett filed a federal lawsuit claiming that song lyrics referred to them. Sample lyric? "You thought I wouldn't sell without you/[But I] sold nine million."
These days, everyone in Destiny's Child (current members: Beyoncé, of course, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland) will tell you things are completely copacetic, even if they are all branching out in different directions--temporarily (Beyoncé insists the band has no plans to split up). Williams recently released a solo album and Rowland is set to follow suit anytime now. Beyoncé is also releasing a solo album, but she's taking an extra step away from Destiny's Child by getting into acting. Last year, she made a not-too-shabby small screen debut as the fiery temptress of MTV's Hip-Hopera: Carmen, a funky update of Georges Bizet's classic 1875 opera. This summer she's starring opposite Mike Myers in the third installment of the enormously successful Austin Powers franchise, Austin Powers in Goldmember. She plays Foxxy Cleopatra, who runs into Austin when he time travels back to 1975 to face off with Dr. Evil and Goldmember. Sporting a mile-high Afro, spangled eye makeup, funky togs, and spouting peppery jive talk, Beyoncé certainly makes an impression.
For a while it was whispered Jennifer Lopez was up for the role. "Jennifer was a rumor, nothing more," says the film's producer, John Lyons. "But we did see a lot of women you could call household names. When Beyoncé came in she was very nervous, but she had authority. Some of the other women seemed to be trying on an attitude and many even came wearing Foxxy Cleopatra-type clothes. Beyoncé got to the heart of it."
"When John, [director] Jay Roach and I met with Beyoncé," says Mike Myers, "we thought she was tough, smart and sweet, all at the same time."
And it was the Austin camp who called her, not the other way around. "When my mom told me I had been offered this meeting with the Austin Powers people, I had no idea what they wanted to see me about," says Knowles. "My mother went to the meeting with me, which was a good thing because she did a lot of the talking. Jay and John explained the script and I was so honored that they had thought of me. After that, I got a call saying they wanted me to read with Mike Myers and, oh my Lord Jesus, I was so nervous. But I did my homework."
She must have needed to. After all, Knowles was born well after the '70s--how could she possibly have been familiar with the excesses of that era? "I watched Foxy Brown a bunch of times," she admits, "and Cleopatra Jones, The Mack and Shaft. But I'd seen a lot of them before because my mother is a big fan of Pam Grier's--she's legendary. The women in these movies were sexy, but also smart and strong. They had attitude, but they weren't so overconfident you couldn't relate to them. The day I met Mike, I watched Foxy Brown over and over."
Mike Myers is considered one of the most adept comedians around, but he's also rumored to be not so easy to work with. Beyoncé reports to have had no problem with him. "He made me feel comfortable," she says. "It was good that Mike was there when I was auditioning, but it was scary too because I was nervous. My palms were sweating. He's so brilliant, I was intimidated. But I didn't try to be funny. When I try to be funny, I just act dumb and corny."
During the first day of shooting, Knowles had to film the scene where she sings the title song "Goldmember," a rowdy, raucous ditty which was cowritten by Myers. "When Beyoncé got up and performed it," says producer Lyons, "you could just feel--everybody on the set knew she was something special."
"Jay and I just looked at each other," says Myers, "and said, 'A star is born.'"
When I relay these comments to Knowles, she seems thrilled. "Filming that scene broke the ice," she says. "Basically, the song lyrics are all about a gold member. Now, a gold member is not a topic I would normally sing about, but when Mike asked, 'How do you feel about singing a song like that?' I said, 'I'm not singing it. Foxxy is."
Clearly, Knowles relished playing this character. "She's fast with a comeback, smart, knows her way around and is constantly trying to keep Austin on track."
Not too much like previous Austin femmes, played by Elizabeth Hurley and Heather Graham. They were asked to portray patient sidekicks, not tough leaders. "If Foxxy met those characters, she would probably smack 'em," says Knowles. "Make this girl mad and she'll knock you out. She has this attitude and spice about her. Not to say that the other girls didn't have their attitude, but Foxxy has some built-up issues.
"We had so much fun while filming," continues Knowles. "Mike was so funny that everyone on the set was laughing when he was in front of the camera. In the corner of my eye, I could see cameramen and crew members cracking up silently. I wanted to laugh out loud, too. But then I realized that as much fun as it was, it was a job and time is money."
Turns out Knowles caused Myers to giggle a little himself, too. "She's really great with accents," he says. "She would make fun of my Canadian accent all day. She'd say 'soary' instead of 'sorry,' 'bean' instead of 'been.' And I have been known to finish a sentence with the word 'eh.'"
But it wasn't all laughs on the set. Early in production, an extra mouthed off to the press that Beyoncé wasn't cutting it. Several national columnists picked up on the story. Even months after the fact, the topic upsets her. "Because of the history of Destiny's Child," she says, "I was aware that some people will take your words or actions and make them into something you didn't mean. People like to hear negative things about celebrities. When I started hearing this stuff about me messing up lines--and it happened in the first couple of weeks of filming--it really affected me. The worst thing about it was they said I looked pretty and was nice, but I basically wasn't doing the job. I'd rather do an acceptable or exceptional job than just look pretty. I thought, Here I am new to movies and this mess is the first thing people are going to hear about me? My feelings were hurt really bad."
Producer Lyons calls the rumor patently false. "She was really shaken by it," he says. "At first, we thought of doing nothing but then we took a page from the Bill Clinton campaign and personally called journalists and told them how unfair and untrue it was."
"When things like this happen," says Knowles, "everyone will tell you, 'It's a compliment because it means people are interested in you. It goes with being a star.' That helps. Mike helped me a lot. He called me late one night after shooting, even though he must have been tired, and told me that every day someone says something like that about him. He said, 'It's mean, it's untrue and you're incredible in the movie. You know this is the last Austin Powers movie and it's important to me that it's good, so if you couldn't bring what we needed, we wouldn't have picked you.' That was so nice. It made me feel more secure."
It also sounds as though it might have made Myers a friend for life. "His professionalism inspired me," she says. "When he dresses up as a character, he's so focused, he doesn't get out of character. I was amazed at how involved he is in every aspect of this movie--he wanted everything to be right, which is beautiful because a lot of people in this business don't want to work that hard."
It's well known that actors who have chemistry in real life don't necessarily have it on-screen. "You can't force chemistry," she says. "But I think Mike and I have it because even in our reading our timing was natural. When we were shooting, I'd notice little things, like the way he'd move his head or a certain rhythm to his speech and, in the next take, I'd pick up on it."
"They're a very good team," adds Lyons. "The surprise is that Beyoncé has a Lucille Ball quality to her."
"I just hope people like me in it," says Knowles. "I want to laugh watching it like everybody else. But I can't look at myself without going, 'Eeew.' I can't watch myself perform, except in videos, where it's so edited it's cool. I just hope I can watch the movie without cringing."
Knowles isn't the only singer in the film--Britney Spears is also making an appearance. "It's great that she's in it," says Knowles. "She plays herself in a scene with Mike, a dance-off that's supposed to be great. I can only imagine what that is! I really like and respect her. She works very hard. I've met her a couple of times and she's always a really nice girl."
With an MTV movie and a feature film on her resume, it sure would seem that Knowles is serious about an acting career. "I've always loved movies. When I was younger, I saw The Wiz starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson, and that was so incredible to me. I don't know what I'd be good at in movies, really. I never thought I'd do a comedy and I've done that now. I'd like to do a big musical like Moulin Rouge, Lady Sings the Blues or Mahogany. I love the movies Barbra Streisand made. I don't want to play a good girl or someone who's nice. I want to be a baaad girl."
Will Knowles, like her idol, Diana Ross of the Supremes, eventually ditch the group that made her? "I'm very, very happy with Destiny's Child. I love the fact that we're the first female group to do a lot of things together and separately. Just yesterday, I saw Michelle perform gospel at a church. I cried, I was so proud of her. You notice how guys who are in groups can go off and do solo things without the group splitting up? Well, we can do that, too."
Is that why Knowles has decided to make a solo album? "I'm in the position right now of being able to do whatever I want," she says with caution. It's the first time during the interview that she's squirming. "I've paid my dues the last four years. I've written a lot of really great songs. I'm blessed. I think people respect me now. The label trusts me and now that they've said, 'Do whatever you want,' it's a good thing, but it's a lot of pressure."
Certainly there is a tremendous amount of pressure on Knowles, and to make matters worse, there's no love interest to help her laugh it off. Although her name occasionally gets linked romantically with other star names like Mos Def ("Just a friend," she assures), it's been several years since she's had a boyfriend. The last was a hometown guy from Houston, Texas, with whom she shared her first kiss at age 13 in front of a Jack in the Box. "It wasn't all that," she says, laughing, about the encounter. "But all my friends had kissed someone except me."
Despite her breakneck schedule and the constant presence of bodyguards, she says she is ready again for a major relationship. "The more success you have, the more you need an escape," she says. "You need something that doesn't have anything to do with work. When you work so much and don't have someone in your life, you get bored. Right now, I'm at that point. Maybe I don't have a boyfriend because it's just not the right time. I know God has a reason."
Often women as famous as Beyoncé have difficulty finding a mate on their level. "If a guy is interested in the image, he's there for the wrong reason," she says. "Once guys meet me they're stunned because they can't believe how normal I am. People, and not just guys, expect me to be a diva and to be someone who's really into my clothes, my hair. I couldn't care less. I would literally sleep in my makeup rather than go through that all the time. But when some people find out I'm just a human being, I guess that disappoints them."
It must be intimidating for a regular person to date someone like Knowles. After all, how many 20-year-old men are on her level financially? "I can see that. Like, what can you get a celebrity that they can't get for themselves? But celebrities don't want anything material. They want friendship. They want someone they can laugh with. That's what I'm looking for. So, a guy shouldn't feel that he's useless if he can't buy me things. I'm not the girl I play in the videos."
Not even a little bit? "I don't want to end up like most people in show business, caught up in trying to be successful. I don't want to be a huge star at any cost."
She pauses a moment, then says, "I'm scared. I'm happy that I've gotten to do this movie, happy I can make music I love. But I'm scared I'm not going to be able to walk down the street by myself. People don't believe me, but I like to go to the mall by myself. I don't like having security around. In fact, I hate it. I want a normal life."
Perhaps she's thinking of the singers before her who became famous, then flipped out and started doing odd things like getting too much plastic surgery, hibernating or perpetually throwing tantrums. "Yes," she says. "It's so easy to get caught up. Everything gets mixed up because it all goes so fast. I learned long ago that 'the business' is all fake. It's plain hype. Unfortunately, people look at us from head to toe, judge us and think we're not human. We are. And, really, nobody's a celebrity but God, anyway. If you don't have people telling you no, things can get twisted. I'm lucky I have my family because they always tell me the truth."
Unlike most young stars, Knowles sounds as if she has her safety shut-off button at the ready--if things get crazy, she will ditch the business. "I could walk away from all of this," she admits. "If I could still sing, say, in nightclubs or just somewhere, oh, yeah, I could walk away. And one of the things I plan to do is just that. I love Tina Turner's career. She'll retire and, one day when she feels like it, she might decide she wants to perform again. That's my goal. I don't want to get too caught up."
________________________________________