Grammy-winner Alicia Keys is a class act by any measure.
It was inevitable that the New York prodigy would get movie offers.
But instead of starting out as a nice bit of romantic interest, the 11-time Grammy-winning artist opted for a screen debut that the toughest gangsta raptress might have thought twice about doing.
In the ultra-violent caper “Smokin’ Aces,” Keys plays Georgia Sykes, half of a hard-bitten, trash-talking, probably lesbian assassination team. She spends much of her screen time in the midst of an epic hotel hallway shootout, dressed in a trashy Nevada call girl disguise that accentuates her curves while camouflaging a small arsenal of guns and ammo. And she proves as strong and deadly as the dozens of guys she fights with.
“The minute that I read the script, I knew that it was so out of my normal character, so out of what so many people probably expected of me, that I knew it was the right thing for me to do,” says Keys, who not only graduated from Manhattan’s Professional Performance Arts School at the age of 16, but was her class valedictorian.
Keys admits the role wasn’t the most comfortable acting job she could have chosen, and not just because of the thigh-high boots and skin-tight hotpants.
“Anything that’s worth it, I don’t think comes easy,” adds Keys, who just celebrated her 27th birthday. “But with everything that I do, I want to give up my comfort zone.”
Keys’ next movie is a slightly less physically demanding part: She’s co-starring with Scarlett Johansson in the film version of the best-selling expose “The Nanny Diaries.”
And a new album is set for release in June. She also has been mentioned in a Bob Dylan song.
“I could not believe it,” she says of finding out that she was name-checked, somewhat lustfully, in “Thunder on the Mountain,” the lead track on the songwriting legend’s last album, “Modern Times.”
“Totally not expecting it, obviously. He’s such a lyrical genius, such a storyteller, a person who has so much history–and as a writer myself, I admire him greatly.
“But I haven’t called him,” she says. “I figure, certain things like that, it’s better from afar.”