Actress Tasha Smith has become a household name while playing fictional characters created by filmmaker Tyler Perry.
The star of the TBS sitcom “For Better or For Worse” and Perry’s “Jumping the Broom,” “Why Did I Get Married” film and its sequel says she’s got just a real person in mind for a future project.
Namely the late Donna Summer.
In an interview with theGrio’s, Smith says she’d love nothing better than to play the late Queen of Disco in a movie biopic.
“I want to play Donna Summer,” she said.
Smith said it would be “a dream role” for her, but confessed that she doesn’t sing.
“But neither did Angela Bassett when she played Tina Turner,” Smith said.
Smith’s career rise in Hollywood has been a meteoric one following a tough upbringing in Camden, N.J., where she and her twin sister were raised by a single mother. Smith soon succumbed to the temptation of drugs, she said during an interview with Ebony Magazine earlier this year.
“I used to do drugs every day,” she said. “I used between the ages of 19 and 25.”
She confessed to a routine that consisted of smoking “two packs of cigarettes a day”, having “[marijuana] every day” and “[using] cocaine three times a week.
Now a devoted Christian, Smith attributed her victory over drugs to “the grace of God.”
She is quick to credit Perry for his role in helping her become one of America’s most recognizable African-American actresses, but is clearly looking to expand her professional horizons.
A Donna Summer biopic would be just what she had in mind.
“I am grateful for the opportunities that I’ve gotten and a lot of the characters I have taken on are a bit rough and different,” she said, “but the essence of what Tyler likes is my strength. I am waiting for other roles and other opportunities to come, but until those other characters come, I’m going to do the roles that I have the opportunities to do.”
Smith has appeared on America’s Next Top Model as an acting coach and helped the models with different scenes. She also has her own acting workshop, Tasha Smith’s Acting Workshop, where she helps and coaches many aspiring actors.
