A week after Lil’ Kim vocalized her dissatisfaction over the forthcoming Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious, the women she attacked have responded to her comments.
Both Faith Evans and Naturi Naughton responded in shock to the Brooklyn rapper’s harsh words, which Evans, for one, has said were unfounded.
In an exclusive interview at the film’s New York City premiere on Wednesday (November 7), Naughton told AllHipHop.com that she was as surprised as any one else to hear that Kim was unhappy with her on-screen representation.
“I hope that when she sees it, she enjoys it,” said the 24-year-old former 3LW singer. “I really put my heart and soul into it, so I hope that her opinion isn’t affected by my performance. Because I wanted to bring her to life in a very real way, as best as I could. I try not to get distracted because people will like it and some people won’t. What can I say.”
Early last week, Kim stated that she had no intention on supporting the film, adding that she was outraged by the film and disappointed in Faith and Biggie’s mom Voletta Wallace for their involvement.
At issue primarily seems to be the negative depiction of her relationship with the slain rapper. “I was not involved in the movie,” she told Hip Hop Weekly. “[The filmmakers] never came and asked me anything about Biggie. But again, this was Faith and Ms. Wallace’s movie.”
Evans, whose 11-year-old son Christopher “CJ” Wallace, Jr. makes his acting debut as his father in the film, maintains that each person portrayed in the film had to authorize the use of their life’s rights in the film.
“I don’t think I would have signed anything had I felt I was not portrayed properly,” the former Mrs. Wallace told MTV in an interview Thursday (January 8). “I think she had the opportunity to do that. I could be mistaken. I wasn’t there.”
As for the final representation of Kim’s affair with B.I.G., Evans pointed out that in compiling information for the biography Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G., on which Notorious is based, writer Cheo Hedari Cocker must have heard enough similar accounts from others to write what he wrote.
In related news, in an interview apparently conducted before the Lil’ Kim interview surfaced, Ms. Wallace expressed her desire to speak with the woman with whom she has remained at odds since her son’s murder in 1997.
“I saw a side of my son that I heard of but I haven’t accepted,” Ms. Wallace told Essence Magazine of her reaction to the film. “I’m angered by certain things, disappointed and shocked. So this film taught me tolerance and to be less critical. I would love to speak to Lil’ Kim, because I need to ask more about this love relationship because I really didn’t like the way he treated her and I’m praying that that’s not it. Only she can answer those questions. She’s a sweet girl and I didn’t think she deserved to be treated the way he treated her, if that’s the case.”
Notorious hits theaters next Friday (January 16) starring Angela Bassett as Ms. Wallace and Antonique Smith as Faith, alongside Naughton’s Lil’ Kim.
Jamal “Gravy” Woodard plays the adult Notorious B.I.G.