Director Robert Townsend is recalling seeing a young Beyoncé auditioning for her first acting role.
In 2001, the now-43-year-old superstar singer played the role of Carmen in MTV‘s Carmen: A Hip Hopera. Beyoncé was 19-years-old at the time and it was her first acting role.
On a recent episode of Lena Waithe‘s Legacy Talk podcast, Robert recalled watching Beyoncé audition for the role.
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According to Robert, he knew the singer was going to be a big star when he first saw her rise to fame.
“I knew of her and I was like, ‘Wow, she has a striking look.’ You know, she’s a beautiful, young girl, but I could see that she had something special. ’Cause [with] my director eyes, I go, ‘Something’s going on with her. She’s got something,” Robert said, adding that Beyoncé was asked to audition for Carmen as a formality even though Robert said he knew she was perfect for the role.
“I could tell she was really nervous,” Robert said, going on to say that he has several methods to help actors and actresses get comfortable for auditions.
“I told her bodyguard and the label executive who accompanied Bey to be part of the scene as well. They started to sweat and really get nervous and then she was watching them get nervous and she got stronger. I said, ‘Oh, there it is,’” Robert recalled.
The director went on to speak on Beyoncé‘s confidence in the audition. Robert said seeing her audition for his movie was how he knew she was going to be a star.
“Watching her blossom into the superstar that she has become, I saw it in that room because there’s certain actors/actresses’ first audition, they wouldn’t go all the way there. She went all the way there,” Robert recalled.
If you didn’t know, Beyoncé was recently nominated for a major award!
