Sound Bite: Antonique Smith – “Faith Evans” – Notorious (left of screen)
Naturi Naughton – “Lil Kim” - Notorious
Antonique: There was I was able to talk with Faith on the telephone, and she trusted me with the manuscript to her book, that had not come out yet so I could read that and get into the story, between conversations, you know, and she has 4 kids and stuff.
Mike: How about you?
Naturi: I didn’t get a chance to meet or talk to my character Lil Kim, so I just had to use other resources, which were watching videos, reading about her back story, understanding her journey as a young woman, why she has those hurts, why you know there’s an insecurity there, and I just did a lot of that and talked to people that grew up with her and Biggy, like the guys from Junior Mafia, little seeds they gave me a lot of insight on what it was like back then in the 90’s with Kim and Big.

Sound Bite: Antonique Smith – “Faith Evans” – Notorious (left of screen)
Naturi Naughton – “Lil Kim” - Notorious
Naturi: Yeah, she started out working at Bloomingdales, it is very interesting, my character had an amazing arch she had to go from a place to the next and become this huge star, so it was interesting, cause I didn’t even know that, I knew you know who Lil Kim was and what I saw, which is a challenge, cause so many fans see that image, oh, she’s Queen Bee now, she’s Lil Kim, but they forget she was that young, you know, vulnerable girl from Brooklyn, who fell in love and wanted to get out of the hood, who wanted a better opportunity and got it through Biggy Smalls and if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think, you know, she would have reached that.

Sound Bite: Antonique Smith – “Faith Evans” – Notorious (left of screen)
Naturi Naughton – “Lil Kim” - Notorious
Naturi: I think that it’s so true, I mean so many of his friends were around when he made those actual phone calls, you know talked to his mom, he was at peace and ready to be the man that he wanted to be and unfortunately he didn’t get the opportunity, but we knew he had it at heart, which is why we went to make this movie and show people his journey into becoming that man.
Antonique: His mom said he was ready, his first album was “Ready to Die” and when he died she said he was “Ready to Live”
Naturi: That’s just and amazing quote that she said, that’s really deep.