Brandy Norwood had no idea what she was “getting herself into” when she signed up to star in The Front Room.
The singer — who started her music career in the 1990s and famously starred opposite the late Whitney Houston in Disney’s 1997 adaptation of “Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella” — has had a career revival in recent years. She stars opposite Kathryn Hunter in the new thriller about a young couple forced to take responsibility for an estranged stepmother. Norwood admitted it was an “emotional” journey from the start.
“I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I first read the script,” she told ScreenRant. “I knew it was a lot, and there was so much to it. It was all over the place emotionally. But I didn’t know until I met Kathryn — and met Sam and Max and Andrew Burnham — and what it was going to really be about, and being in the scenes and reacting, and really being on your toes as an actress. I didn’t really know until I got there, but I’m so glad I did it!”
The “Have You Ever?” singer also explained that she and Hunter — who is known for her role as Arabella Figg in the Harry Potter films — “connected” both on and off set, even though they had to snap into being enemies as soon as the cameras started rolling.
“We did have rehearsal, but there was a bond that we had outside of filming that we just finished talking about just about fifteen minutes ago, about how close we were and about how we were so connected outside of the film,” Norwood said. “And then, when the cameras started to roll, we had to be enemies. And it was kind of weird to go from bonding and asking her a bunch of questions about her life, and then getting on-screen and pouring water on her, you know, or something crazy like that.”
The Front Room will be released in the U.S. on Sept. 6 and in the U.K. on Oct. 25.
