Jill Scott

Scott plays Deidre “Dee-Dee” Jenkins, James Brown’s second wife whom he physically abuses, in Tate Taylor’s Get On Up. The film chronicles Brown’s rise from poverty to music stardom. Co-starring Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Dan Aykroyd.

We had to approach it very gingerly. The family is definitely involved in this film, and we didn’t want this to be the highlight of his existence. We look around and see pictures of James Brown when he went to prison…and they’re talking about drugs, but there’s so much more to this man. And when we approached this particular scene where there was some spousal abuse we were very careful about it because we don’t want to taint this man’s image or his legacy.