THE TAKEOVER ! Beyoncé Covers Essence Magazine/ Cadillac records album cover/If I Were A Boy video insight

“…What Jay and I have is real. It’s not about interviews or getting the right photo op. It’s real.”
—Beyoncé

Beyoncé Knowles Uncut

Strip away the flawless makeup, belly-baring fashions and superstar image of Beyoncé Knowles, and you’ll find a down-to-earth young woman who just wants the chance to be herself.

ESSENCE: I’ve heard that you and your mom are rather close. Is that true?

Beyonce Knowles: You know what’s so beautiful about our relationship? Some mothers are your friends, some mothers are strictly your mother, some mothers are both. Some mothers know when to draw the line, some mothers know when to tell you when you’re wrong and when you’re right. Some mothers don’t tell you when you’re right. (My mother) knows when to be my friend. And growing up, she knew when to be my mother.

She was strict but still, she explained things and made things make sense to me so I didn’t feel like she was disciplining me or trying to boss me around. I understood why, which made my life a lot easier. Another thing is she tells me the truth. My mom’s never asked me for anything. My mom doesn’t want anything from me but for me to be happy. And for me to succeed and be as good, as strong, as happy as I can be. So, knowing that, I’m just lucky to have that honesty in my life.

I always felt safe and I always felt secure because I knew that it was going to be okay. I knew it was ’cause my mom knew it was. She always let me know that regardless of this group, regardless of me singing, regardless of the movies, whatever, she loved me. And I’m young and I’m smart and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I made it happen. So it goes beyond that, like I still have somewhere to go. I still have something else to do, this isn’t the end of the world. And I think … just knowing that, like right now if I never sell another record, it puts a whole ‘nother perspective on this.

ESSENCE: Do you think as Black women, we are expected to be superwomen? Even in relationships we are expected to hold it together.

Beyonce Knowles: Yeah. Guys are babies sometimes. Like they need you and it’s like, I need you and you are just supposed to drop it. I mean it’s very beautiful when you all are just doing the same thing for each other. But I know you just expect the woman to drop everything and fix it. A woman doesn’t even ask for it because they’re supposed to be strong enough to take care of it.

ESSENCE: What is church for you, in the real way?

Beyonce Knowles: I completely believe that you don’t have to go to church at all if you are disciplined enough to sit down and dedicate time to pray and get to know God and read the Bible. But me, it’s better for me to go to church because it’s hard to, for real, sit down by myself for that long, as long as I would be just totally committing myself in my house with the TV on and the distractions. It’s way harder to do that than to go to church with a bunch of people who believe in God, where you can just feel it so much more.

ESSENCE: Will history still remember you as having the soul of the artist? As opposed to just a girl who sold a lot of records.

Beyonce Knowles: I don’t want to be remembered as a member of this huge group that, you know, did whatever. I want to be acknowledged as a woman in a very talented group with great harmonies and great songs that made history and changed the culture of women, not only in America but all over the world. (A woman) who could sing a cappella and write her own songs and produce her own songs.














Lakeland High Grad Stars in Beyoncé Music Video

By Gary White
THE LEDGER

Published: Monday, October 6, 2008 at 5:20 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, October 6, 2008 at 11:22 p.m.



Eddie Goines II is about to become one of the most envied men on Earth.


Beginning today, Goines' fellow males will sit before their TV sets and watch him play romantic foil to the glamorous Beyoncé Knowles in the video for her new single, "If I Were A Boy."

Goines, a former Lakeland High School football player, said he has already been feeling the envy from friends who learned about what may be the biggest break in his acting career.

"Oh my goodness, the conversations and phone calls have been crazy, crazy, crazy," Goines said by phone from Los Angeles, where he lives. "It's exciting, without a doubt, but it's just funny because I know how guys are. I just knew the jokes were coming."

Goines, a 1990 graduate of Lakeland High, has serious hopes that the exposure will vault him to new opportunities in the thespian world, a realm he has found to be just as competitive as football.

"The song is so powerful, it's going to be a big deal," said Goines, whose father lives in Auburndale. "It's just up to me to capitalize on it."

Skip Richey, a teacher and former receivers coach at Lakeland High, called Goines the best receiver the school has ever produced. Richey has kept in touch with Goines and met up with him a couple of years ago in New York City.

"He's a class individual from top to bottom," Richey said. "He was a great student here and a great person. Anybody you talk to around here will speak very highly of Eddie. He was going to be the best. If somebody outdid him on a particular play - I can't remember it happening, but he'd probably think it did - he was going to come right back and show them."

Goines earned a scholarship to North Carolina State University, where he played from 1991 through 1994. He caught 147 passes in his career and finished as the Wolfpack's all-time leader with 2,351 yards and 17 touchdowns. Goines, an academic All-American, spoke to his fellow N.C. State classmates at his commencement ceremony.

The Seattle Seahawks selected Goines in the 1995 National Football League draft, but knee injuries kept him from ever getting on the field. Goines, a member of the Lakeland High School athletic hall of fame, played briefly in the Arena Football League before another injury ended his career.

Suddenly facing life without football, Goines worked as a newscaster in Tennessee and a sports broadcaster for the Sunshine Network in Florida before following his then-wife into acting in New York. With no theatrical training, he landed a role in an "off-off-Broadway" play and met Gertrude Jeannette, an established Broadway actress and the 2002 recipient of the Paul Robeson Award.

"She was just a great acting coach, a mentor and everything else for me," Goines said. "I was fortunate to go in there and work with a lot of good actors. It was just a good start."

Since then, Goines has had minor roles in many TV shows and movies, compiling credits on "NYPD Blue," "All My Children" and "My Name Is Earl" and appearing in the 2007 film "American Gangster." His characters are often listed in the credits as "Bartender" or "Hallway Guy."

He has also done stage work, playing the lead in "A Lesson Before Dying" last year in Los Angeles, after moving west last year, and he appeared with former basketball star Charles Barkley in a Coors beer commercial directed by Spike Lee. His smiling face also graces packages of Just For Men's jet black formula hair color.

Goines also entered the realm of video games, serving as the model for the main character in the highly popular "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." That job involved wearing a suit covered in sensors for motion-capture recording of the character's movements in the studio.

Goines, who declined to give his age, also works as a substitute teacher in Los Angeles.

"The life of an actor, it's really very, very, very slow, as far as the things you do," he said.

"If you're in the business, you know this person might be progressing but outside the business if you don't see somebody on any of these big shows, you don't see it."

The latest role came suddenly and unexpectedly. About four weeks ago, Goines received a voice message at school from a prominent casting director, one he had previously contacted many times without ever getting a response. Listening to his voice mail, he was stunned to learn he was being considered for the romantic lead in a Beyoncé video.

Goines said he was on a flight to New York that night and met Beyoncé on the set in Harlem the next morning. The video shoot took three days.

"If I Were A Boy" is one of two singles coming out this week in advance of Beyoncé's new album, scheduled for release in November. Beyoncé, 27 and successful enough to drop her surname, is as famous for her appearance as her voice, having acted in such movies as "Austin Powers in Goldmember" and "Dreamgirls" and posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue.

Goines said he and Beyoncé portray a couple going through difficulties in the video. Photos and a short video segment leaked from the shoot reveal Beyoncé dressed as a police officer, albeit one with a rather tightly tailored shirt. Goines demurred from offering too much detail on the story line, saying the video features a dramatic plot twist he doesn't want to give away.

And if it really needs stating, there is no romantic involvement between Goines, who is single, and Beyoncé, who married rapper Jay-Z last April.

"She was very welcoming on the set - very nice, very sweet, very focused," Goines said. "I didn't even hear the song till the end of the third day. At first they said, 'OK, Eddie, you're wrapped up.' Then they said, 'We want you to be in a performance segment with Beyoncé.' I sat there while she was singing, and in my head I'm like, 'Oh, man, this is Beyoncé!' That's when it kicked in."

Goines, noting that roles in Aerosmith videos propelled Alicia Silverstone to movie stardom, hopes for a similar bump in his career trajectory.

"I've worked with Spike Lee, Charles Barkley, Denzel Washington, Beyoncé, Russell Crowe," he said.

"God has really blessed me, even though it's been a challenge. I'm just excited about the future. I really feel I'm about to have a breakthrough."