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"Honey" is a hot choreographer who follows her dream on her own terms. Frequent video director Bille Woodruff (R. Kelly, Nelly) found the leading lady for his first feature in Jessica Alba, a sexy starlet who is also following her dream on her own terms. When opportunity knocks, she answers, but it's no easy entry into her new career. Alba talks to MTV News' Vanessa White Wolf about "Honey" and why she won't be the next screen star to cross over into music.
MTV: How do you think "Honey," your first starring role — you're the one on the poster — fits into your career? Is this the movie you wanted to put you out as a lead?
Jessica Alba: I just want to work, you know? And at the end of the day, I got to be a dancer. I always wanted to be a dancer when I was a kid, and for one reason or another I couldn't. I got to fulfill that dream to be a dancer and that was primarily why I wanted to do it. When the opportunity arose, I was like, "How can I pass this up?"
And there are other technical things that went along with it. When I was traveling overseas, I realized what an influence hip-hop and dance had on the rest of the world, from the kids in Japan, in Germany, in France, in London, I mean everybody. It's something that transcends race, and I love that, 'cause I never want to put an emphasis on anything. I think we're all part of the same world and it's something that certainly is a common ground for all the kids, so I knew it would reach out to everybody.
MTV: Are you going to continue dancing, maybe go into music?
Alba: Oh no. No, no, no. I'm an actress [laughs]. My next movie is "Into the Blue" with Paul Walker. It's a water movie. ... It's kind of a remake of "The Deep," an action thriller about four people who discover some treasure but there's a big plane of cocaine on top of the treasure and they have to deal with that, so all these things happen.
MTV: You're one of the good guys?
Alba: Yeah, I'm one of the good guys!
MTV: Were you a fan of the hip-hop artists in "Honey" before you did the movie?
Alba: Yeah, Missy Elliott, Ginuwine. I knew Tweet, one of her hits. Jadakiss and Sheek, I wasn't very familiar with. And I wasn't familiar with [Lil'] Romeo, but I knew his dad, [Master] P.
MTV: What about after the movie, are you a bigger fan?
Alba: Pretty much the same. Missy especially, I've always loved her. When she first came out with "The Rain," that video, I was like "Wow, who's this?" She's not doing the sexy thing, she's not trying, she's just herself and she's creative. Her beats are amazing and she produces all her own stuff and I think she's awesome. She continues to surprise me.
MTV: Did you think it was easier doing this movie with Bille Woodruff, a first-time film director who has been doing music videos for so long?
Alba: Definitely. It definitely put my mind at ease when it came to making the videos look really good. Normally videos have a million, million and a half dollars to shoot a big video, we had maybe $150-200,000. And so Bille knew how to cheat it and to make it look good and real and different. Each video looked completely different from one video to the next, and I thought he did a great job. I think he's a great storyteller. He really knew all these characters and he let us all have free range. It's not that deep of a movie. It's not supposed to be that deep. It's just a good time.
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Photo: Universal Pictures
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