Ajiona Alexus does not want anyone else to define success for her. At the age of 27, Alexus is already a veteran actress, getting her start in the industry when she was 12. She’s been in the film Acrimony, and appeared on “BMF,” “Empire,” “13 Reasons Why” and “The Rickey Smiley Show.” One of her latest gigs, however, will be based on one of Mary J. Blige’s classic singles. The title of the Lifetime original film is Real Love, based on Blige’s 1992 single “Real Love.” She’s also on Mary J. Blige’s Strength of a Woman, which premieres on June 17 on Lifetime.
The film premiered on June 10, and Alexus recently stopped by rolling out to discuss it as well as her career.
What was it like working on Real Love?
Man, this is such a blessing. I’m gonna be honest with you, I say this a lot, but this crew was probably one of my favorite all-time crews I’ve worked with. I think it’s because they had a rapport before, they’ve all worked together. Usually, you get a sound person from somewhere, lights and cameras, everybody’s trying to build that chemistry and they already had a chemistry and everything.
[On the set of Real Love], it was younger people. We had two female camera operators, which I haven’t seen in my life. They were like 26-25, and we just all had that younger energy and stuff. So it was cool to work with this production team and film this movie.
Did you play a teenager in this movie?
Yes, we go from HBCU college-aged, then jump 15 years to about 30. So it was definitely a wide range.
What’s your secret to keeping that youthful look and energy?
I wouldn’t say that it’s a secret. The secret as an artist, you have to forever be young.
You have to keep that young energy, and I think I’ve never lost that. I still have it. My love for the art, it’s natural. I feel like a kid in a toy box. It’s like, “Oh, what do I get to do today?” Every new set, every film is like a new adventure. I feel like a kid in the candy store. For me, I’m like, “Yo, this is fun.” I get to dig in my toolbox and have like fun with it.
With me and Da’Vinchi, we had chemistry before shooting a movie on the “BMF” series before, so we just had fun with it. When we transitioned to the Strength of a Woman film, we had to study it. What actually helped, Camrus [Johnson] did an amazing job, he was a director for the first film. He had this younger spirit anyways that he brought that into us as well.
For Strength of a Woman, we had Shari [L. Carpenter], and she had a very mature perspective on things. So if I was acting a little childish, she helped us tune it back the other way. I think overall, everyone helped us make that transition from being younger to being older.
