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D. Woods on “Blackbird”, music, acting… and more!

by Ryan Shea

D. Woods, Manhattan Digest, Ryan Shea

It is rare in this day and age, to find someone talented enough to be considered to be a triple threat.  D. Woods is someone who is a strong contender to be that particular kind of entertainer.  Already known for her musical prowess and dancing ability, the talented Massachusetts native is keeping her buzz loud and strong by starring in the new feature film “Blackbird”.  Alongside Academy Award winning actress Mo’Nique, D. Woods shines in a breakthrough role about acceptance in yourself and others that will no doubt put her on the forefront of who is next in the acting community.

Beautiful, humble and sweet, D. Woods sat down with me recently to discuss her involvement in “Blackbird”, as well as her beginnings in the theater, influences that she has gotten to know and worked with, and what her future plans are outside of all the fab things she is doing right now.  Take a look.

dwoods

A lot of people know you from music obviously, but you are now dabbling in acting.  Do you have a particular preference?

Well, I grew up in the theater actually.  It was dancing first, then musical theater came after that, and finally it was the music industry.  I have never really separated the art forms, especially with musical theater you do all at the same time and that is how I was trained to do it all- dancing forms, singing, acting, delivery, musicality etc.  It all comes together for me, I am just now able to do projects that are more visible and show my acting talents but I’ve been on the stage doing acting throughout my life.  Now I’m on screen so you are being introduced to a whole other side of me!

It is safe to say that your background in music that we have come to know is R&B based.  A lot of people feel as if that particular genre has been dead for quite some time, what is your take on it?

I think because of the way records are selling or not selling, and everyone is trying to appeal to as many people as possible and want the largest demographic, that is where a lot of artist get into this EDM/Euro or Pop N’ B type feel to wherever they think is going to sell.  I do believe that there are a lot of artists that are true to R&B, I just don’t put myself in a box however.  I do whatever the music tells me to do, so it might be rock influenced or feel more cinematic, you know what I mean?  It might be trap or ratchet, but then I might do R&B harmonies and vocals, its whatever I want to play with.  I think there are a lot of audiences out there that want a true musical experience whether they are going to an R&B show and they are getting a little gospel thrown at them, or maybe some rock as well in the way that the band switches up the track that people know and love from their recording into the live show.  I think the live performance is the best and a lot of R&B singers are the ones that can give you a true live performance as opposed to some overdubbed, autotuned track where they just hit play and walk out.

Growing up, you had to have influences that got you into the entertainment field that you are in today.  Do you have any in particular that standout?

Yes, of course!  I’ve met a lot of people that I didn’t expect to meet, or that I watched and know so much about their work and having a conversation with them is weird because I don’t want to have a fan moment or weird them out.  I got to work with actress Lynn Whitfield on a musical called “Rebirth” and being in rehearsal with her everyday made me think of “The Josephine Baker Story”, which would just freak me out.  I thought she was Josephine Baker when I was little!  She comes from a generation that had that triple threat feel to it, so that was definitely a great experience working with her.

Working with Mo’Nique was big, because we saw her evolution from a comedienne to a comedic actress to working her way up to winning an Oscar and now she is an executive producer on top of all of that.  So working with her was just fantastic.  I watched a lot of fantasy movies growing up, so whenever they redo “The Wiz” I definitely want to partake in that on some sort of level.  I met Quincy Jones a while back and pretty much told him, “I LOVE the soundtrack to The Wiz”.  I mean, this guy has worked with everyone from Duke Ellington & Michael Jackson, the soundtrack to “The Color Purple” and so much more… but that is what I saw when I met him.  The Wiz.

Blackbird, D. Woods, Ryan Shea, Manhattan Digest
Credit to: Youtube

So the movie “Blackbird” just got released to stellar reviews.  What is your involvement in it?

“Blackbird” is a coming of age story, centered around a character named Randy Rousseau who is played by Julian Walker.  He is our breakout star.  He is straight up novice, like Julian is still in college right now. I remember he was doing homework while on set!  When I read this script, I found out the character finding himself and coming to terms with his sexuality but at the same time trying to live up to the expectations of his family, community and church.  I play one of his friends in high school named Leslie Crandall whom he also feels like he has to live up to in his group of people around him.  I feel with “Blackbird” at the base of it, it is all about acceptance and love.  Loving yourself, accepting yourself, hopefully the people around you love you and accept your choices and are supportive but its trusting that voice inside in being who you want to be.

Following up on that, what would you say if someone was reading this article and having a hard time coming out to their loved ones or had something they want to share with people around them but fear backlash?

I would say, just be who you are.  You will be so much happier at the end of the day.  If the people around you don’t accept you, there is a pool of people that you can find who can become your family, circle of friends and ultimately your support system.  I have a non-profit mentorship program called “Foolish Dreamers” and one of the main things that I tell the high school students is “You have to get the squares out your circle”.  I can’t take credit for that, it was Future, but I thought it was so real because the people around you have to support your dream and choices so that you can be the best person that you are.  If you are trying to be somebody that you are not, you are not being true to yourself, fair to yourself, and ultimately what you can bring to the world.

I recently saw you on an episode of Bravo’s hit show “The Real Housewives Of Atlanta” where you and her went to back to your old high school.  A lot of people know you from the reality world already, so would you consider going back to it?

I’ve been asked many, many times but it has to be under the right circumstances.  I’m still trying to get that dark cloud from over me as it is hard to make a first impression for the second time.  If you are introduced the wrong way to the general public you have to re-educate them so that gives them the opportunity to throw away the perception they may had of you and what you had presented at that point.  At the end of the day- the networks and everyone else has their own agenda, question is- can I get mine?  I haven’t felt comfortable with doing it yet so as of now no.

Besides “Blackbird”, what other fabulous projects doing you have coming up in the future? 

I’ve partnered up with Patrick Ian-Polt & Tall Skinny Black Boy Productions and my independent label to produce the soundtrack to “Blackbird”.  The first single came out Tuesday, shortly after the movie’s release, called “Find Your Way”.  It is written by myself and produced by Simon Illa, another long time collaborator of mine.  It was a song inspired by the film, and then we have the songs in the film that will all be on the soundtrack.

Anything else you want to add Miss Woods? 

You can follow me on social media at YaGirlDWoods on everything!  My main site is missdwoods.com and I have a single out right now called “Ur Tattoo” featuring Paul Wall.  Paul is seriously president of Texas after all this time.  We performed at SXSW and couldn’t even walk down the street, it was crazy.

Thanks so much for sitting down with me!

You are very welcome!

Check out D. Woods on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram! 

 

Filed Under: ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, MOVIES, MUSIC, THEATRE, uncategorized Tagged With: Academy Award, blackbird, d. woods, danity kane, kandi burress, lynn whitfield, manhattan digest, Mo'Nique, Oscars, Precious, R&B, real housewives of atlanta, ryan shea

Real Housewives of Atlanta Recap: GWTW Fabulous?

by Ryan Shea

Credit to: Rolling Out
Credit to: Rolling Out

 

As an avid Real Housewives of Atlanta fan (and other seasons at that), this season was different in several ways yet it still brought home that punch at this particular venue does so well.  Now that Kim Zolciak has departed this year, the lone original housewive in NeNe Leakes continues to be the one that everyone watches for when it comes to her no nonsense tolerance of stupidity and her overall hilarity that comes with being her.  Besides her, there are two new housewives that were introduced in the mix, and boy did they deliver.  One more than the other though.  Kenya Moore made herself pretty comfortable in the RHOA franchise this year, coming in like a bullet from episode one when judging on a Jet Magazine contest to the finale last night when attempting to kick out other new housewife Porsha Stewart out for coming in a different costume (yes, that happened).  Regardless, this was the best season of RHOA in a very long time and I am going to breakdown each housewife and my thoughts on them this season.

NeNe Leakes-

NeNe is truly the best part of this show, and in many people’s eyes the best housewife to ever exist on any of the series.  Her vivaciousness and tenacity to get her career where it needs to be has been truly shown this season, in particular her always being bi-coastal in LA and Atlanta.  She is finally a series regular on the NBC show “The New Normal” and that was documented in full this year.  Also profiled heavily was her reconciliation with her ex husband Greg which culminated in him proposing to her in last weeks episode (Aww).  My personal opinion is that they should’ve never gotten divorced in the first place, as to me it just seemed like she was so career driven that she wanted her independence and that was a main focal point in her leaving.  Nevertheless, NeNe had words with every cast member this season except for Kandi (her former nemesis) and Cynthia.  She read every other girl correctly this year, from Porsha having a controlling husband to Kenya getting way out of line with everyone for no reason.  As for her relationship with Kim, that is one that will truly never flourish and be what it was supposed to be- as a modern day boughetto version of Thelma & Louise. Facts are this- NeNe is water to that shows livelihood. That franchise can’t survive without it.  So keep coming back NeNe because we love you!

Kandi Burruss-

In my opinion, Kandi is the most successful when it comes to being a true business woman.  Her storyline this year was falling in love with her boo Todd Tucker and the road to engagement and potentially a new baby in the works.  She is one of two of the RHOA housewives that are getting a spin off, her’s being “The Kandi Factory” in which she discovers new talent to work professionally in the music industry (pumped for that).  Kandi and NeNe are in the same realm in that they both really keep it 100 everywhere they go.  Kandi did a very good job in the drama department by sticking with Phaedra during the whole battle with Kenya and finally settling the stupid beef between her and NeNe when they were on vacation.  A true businesswoman, she continues to be the pioneer in female sex toys with her “Bedroom Kandi” line that earned her the Best Toy Sex Line at the 2012 AVN’s.  The joke here that I love is when she said “I think I am the only person to win a Grammy and an AVN”.  Really for me, Kandi is the shit and should’ve been an original housewife in season one as opposed to the woman she replaced, DeShawn (boring).  She continues to breakaway from being just a girl from a 90’s girl group and really make herself a force to be reckoned with in the business world.  Good for her.

Cynthia Bailey-

Cynthia’s will be short and sweet.  The renewal of vows with Peter in Anguilla was nice.  Her continuing her Bailey Model Agency was fun to watch as well.  Her standing her ground when Kenya was acting a hot ass mess at her agency was great as well.  Besides that, Cynthia remains to me an anomaly on that show.  She isn’t that interesting but somehow continues a third season on the show.  I was sort of shocked they kept her around and not that insane nut job Marlo Hampton.  She does read well though.  The funniest thing this season for me is when she asks Kenya- “Now Kenya, were you before or after Vanessa Williams”.  HA. Love it.

Phaedra Parks-

Ugh.  There are times where I like Phaedra, and there are times where she annoys the heck out of me.  Regardless, her colorful commentary keeps me cracking up, especially her digs at onetime friend Kenya.  That seemed to be her main focal point this season as well, was her ongoing battle with Ms. Moore.  The battle began really when Phaedra didn’t want to cough up any money to pay Kenya for all the work she put into Phaedra’s workout video.  I side with Kenya here, as regardless of friendship you should pay for something like that. That is when the flood gates opened and pretty much at every event something happened between the two of them.  They seemed to squash things in the end, but besides that fight was there anything really interesting about Phaedra this season? Her going into the funeral business for pets bored the heck out of me and her relationship with her fine as heck husband Apollo bored me as well.  With baby number two on the way, is there anything left for this woman to be a vital structure when season six happens? Stay tuned.

Porsha Stewart-

Or as I like to call her, the Alexis Bellino of RHOA.  Meaning the girl says some dumb shit.  Porsha is a bubbly fun girl who has some great family history that was documented at the beginning of the season (she is family members with Hosea Williams).  That being said, the girl just proved why she is a real housewife this season by being married to a very controlling husband, AKA that closet case Kordell Stewart.  Now he has filed for divorce from her and it is getting ugly.  Really ugly.  I am sure the way he was portrayed on the show didn’t really hit well with him on the home front hence why he is leaving her, but was there anything else that could’ve attributed to it? There were some great and genuine moments such as Porsha revealing her problems trying to conceive and her devotion to charity work, but really all that relationship was was Kordell telling Porsha what to do in every situation.  She was another one that got into it so many times with Kenya, and originally I was on Porsha’s side, but as the season went on and all she had to throw digs on was her age really just showed how immature Porsha was.  Now with the divorce riding high, she is sure to be a cast member for next season, but will they portray her as the newly single Carrie Bradshaw of Atlanta? Time will tell.

Kenya Moore-

I love Kenya Moore. I really, really do.  I have had this girl’s back from the get go pretty much and there are so many aspects about her that I find to just be freaking fantastic.  This show needed someone like her, and I understood why she did what she did.  The only thing I disagreed with was how rough she was in the first episode when judging the Jet Beauty Pageant thing at Cynthia’s agency.  Besides that, girl can stand up for herself.  Phaedra was wrong in not paying her, you don’t do stuff for free.  Porsha, miss “265 Days A Year” was wrong as well with her below the belt jokes that made Kenya seem to be this old woman when really she is the best looking girl of the bunch (and most physically fit).  Did she overreact about Walter? No.  If my friends kept inviting my ex to places and they knew it made me uncomfortable, well then they aren’t really friends to begin with? Kenya really did a great job at getting her point across and looking back on things I really get where she was coming from.  “Gone With The Wind Fabulous” is truly the best quote of the season and a mantra I use in my everyday life.  She is a beautiful and smart addition to the show and I can’t wait to see where it leads next season.

What are your thoughts RHOA fans? Did you like this season? What are your views on the ladies? Can’t wait for the reunion next week!

 

Filed Under: BREAKING NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, OPINION, REVIEWS, TELEVISION Tagged With: atlanta, bedroom kandi, cynthia bailey, gone with the wind, jet magazine, kandi burruss, kenya moore, kordell stewart, nene, nene leakes, phaedra parks, porsha stewart, real housewives, real housewives of atlanta, rhoa, the kandi factory, the new normal

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