Mary Wilson: Dream Girl #1

December 15, 2006

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I have made no secret of my love for the movie Dreamgirls and all the ladies who inspired the film. After seeing the film, I was hungering to go back and re-read DREAMGIRL: MY LIFE AS A SUPREME, which is Mary Wilson's unvarnished account of the group. (The book would make a great xmas gift, btw) When I last spoke to Wilson, she expressed some degree of irritation that the Broadway folks never publicly came out and acknowledged that the show was inspired by her group. The movie folks are spreading Supremes love, though, and Diana and Mary are at the center of it...

MARY MARY, WHEN WE LAST SPOKE, YOU DISCUSSED BEING SHUT OUT OF THE WHOLE "DREAMGIRLS" PHENOM WHEN IT WAS ON BROADWAY.... AND NOW HERE WE ARE IN DECEMBER... IT IS 24/7 "DREAMGIRLS" AND THE SUPREMES ARE ON EVERYBODY'S MIND. YOU WERE AT THE PREMIERE THE OTHER NIGHT IN LA... WERE PEOPLE BOWING AT THE FEET OF QUEEN MARY?
I didn't think about it like that but people were so gracious! Beyonce was so nice and saying how the Supremes were part of her parent's life. I don't know..maybe I am so removed I don't take it as you put it. People really were nice and sweet. The most surprising - wasn't about Beyonce because I knew her parents are around my age and had grown up with us. Bill Condon, the director, surprised me because he was so excited when he heard I was there. He ran over to me and told me that he'd begged his dad to see the Supremes in Brooklyn when he was a kid! He'd said he was so excited to see us and his dad did take him. It's good to see that the movie has embraced a little of the initial inspiration for the writing of the play. Those two guys who wrote it - Tom and Henry - they grew up with the Supremes and so did the director so I am sure they had that as inspiration. The original idea was based upon the Supremes and that timeframe.

DID YOU MEET ANYONE YOU HAD NOT BEFORE?
That young lady Jennifer Hudson I didn't know. The girl from American Idol. And Anika Noni Rose I had not known. I interviewed them all for Extra. Did you see my premiere coverage on Extra?

NO I DIDN'T!
Go to look on the Extra website - it's so fun! And I had a chance to tell Eddie Murphy he should get the Oscar for that. His portrayal of those guys in the 60s was incredible. Total Wilson Picket! He was raw, he was totally there!

TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE FILM....
I thought it was brilliant. I thought they stayed true to the story of the play and book, which is very difficult when adapting to film. There were a few moments where they interjected stuff that you wondered about, but the big thing is that it was a beautiful movie. They made it beautiful and I felt good about that. It was just great. The music was wonderful and captured the time and social climate in a beautiful way. They sometimes don't get it right, but in this film you sat there and were transformed into this Cinderella story while getting information about payola and life for black artists getting covered by white artists and not getting on magazine covers. It was beautiful. The storytelling was wonderful. I was so pleased. I was in front of Loretta DeVine from the original play who seemed very pleased too ..

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