'Secret Life of Bees' star Alicia Keys' hive of activity
Saturday, October 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
Alicia Keys isn't going to rest until she has done it all.
One of the most versatile musicians of her generation, the New York-born, piano-playing R&B songstress has turned out albums worth a slew of awards and millions in sales. As the face of the HIV prevention charity she co-founded, Keep a Child Alive, she has traveled to Kenya, Uganda and South Africa and hosts benefit concerts, like one in London this year, that can generate over $700,000 in a single night. With the Friday release of "The Secret Life of Bees," she will inch further into the movie-star spotlight.
How does she feel? Busy. When asked if she's hard at work on her fourth studio album yet, she laughs, "No, I need a break, dammit."
PHOTOS: KEYS' BUZZWORTHY CAREER
Keys, 27, made her movie debut in 2007 as a sexy femme fatale in "Smokin' Aces," and appeared the same year in "The Nanny Diaries." Both times, she earned kudos as a solid actor, even as critics shrugged off the films. "Bees" is the next logical step: bigger part, star-studded cast and an audience of devoted fans who, like Keys, loved the book.
"I just fell in love with it," she says of the Sue Monk Kidd best seller that is the basis for the film. "It just felt like you knew the people in that book. It's a beautiful story - and one not often told about this time in the civil rights movement."
The plot follows a white teenager, Lily (Dakota Fanning), caught just outside the tide of change in South Carolina after the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. When a violent incident lands her family's housekeeper, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson), in trouble, Lily escapes with the older woman to a honey farm run by the Boatwright sisters, June, August and May (Keys and Oscar nominees Queen Latifah and Sophie Okonedo). Self-sufficient and worldly, the women are everything that Lily yearns to be.
She searches for a mother figure in August even as she is viewed with suspicion by the stiff, hyper-independent June - a reminder that in racially polarized times, fitting into her adoptive family is a task not without its own perils.
"For a while you feel like June's just - what's going on with her? She's angry? She's not embracing Lily at all?" says Keys. "She's a passionate, emotional person, but she's definitely been hurt and it's a hard time. She has to be tough."
Critics got a peek at the film at the Toronto Film Festival in September, and wondered how audiences would react to the mix of heavy themes and bold-faced names. "An earnest, straightforward three-hankie melodrama," wrote the L.A. Times, while pondering if the pop-culture appeal of the stars would be the focus of the marketing. Others gave the cast more credit. The Hollywood Reporter noted Keys' "commanding presence" while Daily News critic Elizabeth Weitzman predicted audiences will appreciate how Keys "handily steals the movie."
Alicia: The seven-year star
It may seem hard to believe, but Alicia Keys only burst onto the music scene as recently as 2001. Here are the major milestones on her seven-year journey to worldwide success.
2001: Keys releases "Songs in A Minor," her first studio album, including the soon-to-be No. 1 Billboard hit "Fallin.'" Her distinctive contralto and incorporation of classical piano riffs contribute to breakout success.
2002: "Songs in A Minor" wins five Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Best R&B; Album. Keys is the first female solo artist to win five Grammys in one night since Lauryn Hill.
2003: Keys' second studio album, "The Diary of Alicia Keys," hits stores just before Christmas and sells more than half a million copies in its first week. The single "If I Ain't Got You" stays on the Billboard charts for over a year. She helps co-found the HIV prevention and education charity Keep a Child Alive.
2004: Keys wins an MTV Video Music Award for Best R&B; Video for "If I Ain't Got You."
2005: Keys wins four more Grammy Awards, and records her "Unplugged" album at Brooklyn Academy of Music.
2006: Keys travels to Durban, South Africa, and other project sites with Keep a Child Alive.
2007: Keys makes her big-screen debut in "Smokin' Aces" with Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta. Later in the year, she is seen in "The Nanny Diaries" alongside Scarlett Johansson. Her third studio album, "As I Am," debuts at number one on the Billboard 200, and generates the largest sales week of her career.
2008: Two more Grammy Awards, both for her song "No One." Keys records the theme song for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace" with Jack White of the White Stripes. "The Secret Life of Bees" hits theaters. Keys rallies voters for Barack Obama.
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