arts & entertainment
Eric Benét: The ‘Trinity Goodheart’ Interview
B
orn in Milwaukee on
Oct. 15, 1970, two-
time Grammy-nomi-
nee Eric Benét is an actor,
singer and songwriter
whose music has been
influenced by such R&B
greats as Al Green, Sly
Stone, Chaka Khan and
Marvin Gaye. His first pro-
fessional break came back
in the late Eighties while he was in a local
group called Gerard.
Since then, Eric has struck gold on the
R&B charts and released albums like True
to Myself, A Day in the Life and Love and
Life. He has collaborated with a range of
highly respected artists, including
Something for the People; Earth, Wind, and
Fire; and Wynonna Judd. As an actor, he’s
enjoyed recurring roles on the TV series
“For Your Love,” “Half & Half” and
“Kaya.”
Here, he talks about starring opposite
Erica Gluck in his new film, Trinity
Goodheart, a heartwarming family drama
about a strained father-daughter relation-
ship. The movie premieres on the GMC-TV
Network on Saturday, August 20th at 9 PM
ET/PT (8 PM CT).
kam Williams: Hi Eric, thanks for the
time. How’re you doing?
Eric Benét: I’m doing very well, thank
you.
kW: I’ll be mixing in my questions with
a lot I got from fans. The first is from Teresa
Emerson who says: I love your music,
Eric. Great to see you back in films. What
interested you about this particular project?
EB: Well, my manager had read the
script, and liked it a lot. And I finally got
around to it after I was ambushed at a gig in
Atlanta by the producers and the
scriptwriter. They told
c ElEBrIty me they felt I was per-
I NtErvIEW fect for the part. So, I
took the initiative to
read it that night and
fell in love with it,
by Kam
because there were so
Williams
many parallels between
the main character’s life
and my own. And I also
liked how the story was
so warm and about faith and how it remind-
ed people that love and family are both
worth fighting for.
kW: Felicia Haney says: This film has
some similarities to your having been a sin-
gle-dad with a young daughter in real life. Is
that one of the reasons why you chose to do
the film?
EB: I felt that if this was going to be my
first male lead in a film, then it would be a
great opportunity to latch onto since there
were so many anchors in this character that
I could sink my teeth into because of all the
parallels with my life.
kW: Was that you really playing the sax
in the movie?
EB: I did not actually play. I kind of just
pantomimed, hoping that whoever really
played the sax would sound good and coin-
cide with what I was doing.
kW: Irene Smalls says: You play a black,
single father raising his child alone. This is
definitely not the norm in the Black com-
munity where there are so many single-
female headed households. She asks: What
message do you want to communicate
through your role?
EB: Irene’s right, it’s not the norm. But it
was my reality. I was pretty much a single-
father for most of my daughter India’s life.
She’s 19 now, just finished her freshman
Page 8 The Portland Skanner august 17, 2011
year at USC, and she’s blossomed into an
incredibly talented, beautiful, strong young
woman. Looking back, were there things I
could’ve done better? Yes, but I’m still pret-
ty proud of myself for having raised such an
amazing individual. Being a parent is not
easy, but speaking for myself, it’s a wonder-
ful blessing and the most rewarding job I’ve
ever had.
Read the rest of this story online at
www.theskanner.com