#so belated congrats on getting published i did see a lot of that on your blog when it was happening

[queer-book-character-tournament]

this is such a funny description of the characters I wanted to share as pre-propaganda from @a-kind-of-merry-war and also thank you for reminding me to check if One Night in Hartswood was out in the USA yet (it is, I have ordered now!)

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/technology/entertainment/watch-mary-j-blige-talks-new-music-and-playing-an-assassin-in-a-new-series/

WATCH: Mary J. Blige talks new music and playing an assassin in a new series

Transcript for Mary J. Blige talks new music and playing an assassin in a new series

Thank you guys for joining us. Our next guest, a music legend, nine-time grammy winner as well as Oscar nominated actress starring in the new networks series “The umbrella academy.” Please welcome the hip-hop of soul, Mary J. Blige. ??? I don’t wanna be like that ??? Hello. Hello. Good morning. You need me to roll you up? Happy belated birthday. Thank you. You are looking more than just fine, fine, fine, fine. Ooh. Thank you so much. How was the celebration? Oh, man, it was — I mean, it was the most fun I’ve had in a very long time. I only have like 16 girlfriends, real solid girlfriends. There we are, we had the time of our lives and my sister — They’re loving it. And my sister’s birthday was the following day so the celebration kept going so my birthday was January 11th. Hers is January 12th so it just kept going and Angie’s birthday was the 9th and neese’s birthday was the 6th. A family affair. Just kept going. Beautiful. Great. But you’re a nine time grammy winner. Women dominated — Yeah, women dominated the grammys this past weekend especially after a lot of criticism about not enough being represented. Are things getting better in your opinion. Yes, I think there’s a movement, there’s something happening where we’re banding together and lifting each other up and women are helping each other to do better because it’s a very male dominated business, all of them. So we’ve learned if we lift each other up and not tear each other down with unity we can make this thing better and that’s what I’m seeing. Can we expect a new album soon. I’m working on two of them. Really? Two of them. Tell us more. I really can’t tell you more but it’s great. My fans are going to be super happy. It reflects my life, you know, reflects all of our lives as women that are like bosses and, you know, know they can say they are bosses right now. They’ve earned the right to do that? And you have. I tell you what, when those come out, we know a show that you’re on right now that would love to have you come back and sing. We’re hear waiting for you. I’ll be back. Yes, you will. Yes. It’s Thursday. So we’re going to do a little throwback Thursday. I can’t believe, 25 years ago you released “My life” and your album and I was telling robin, I said it is my favorite album of all time. Wow. That’s saying something. He loves music. Top to bottom. Thank you. What would you tell — your breakout album, a lot of people thought but what would you tell your younger self, what you know. Wow, I will say please stop being afraid of who you are because I was very afraid of who I was. That was too much for me. You know and now you’re branching out and doing all these different things and acting, the “The umbrella academy.” Y’all, she plays a time traveling assassin named cha-cha, okay. Yeah, yeah. You love being able to — When I saw the script and saw who cha-cha was, she knew hand-to-hand combat and the script was amazing anyway but just the fact that I get to fight like — I get to learn mar that will arts, I was like, yes! And I get to learn how to shoot guns so I know how to shoot a Glock and Smith & Wesson, desert eagle, a sawed off. You want to see cha-cha in action? Yes. Let’s do it. Maybe if you carried it once in a while we wouldn’t have this problem to begin with. My physical therapist isn’t even covered by insurance. This is you suffering in silence? Can we not do this now. Fine. We need to get back to the family compound and find that junkie. We barely got out alive. I will do digging on the family while you look for that junkie. Let’s get our briefcase. Fine. And being that your character is an assassin and kicks butt how much training did you have to do? About five months, we were in Toronto for five months, so every day from the first day that I landed I was amped to go train for martial arts so every day we had to train for martial arts and train for fights and train to ago and fight so it was a lot of acting and fighting? Oh, wow. All that stuff is like acting, fighting, the stuff you see people do so I mean, yeah, it was a lot of that. I already knew how to shoot guns before I got there because, well, my girlfriend Tasha, she took me to the shooting range and so I had already learned how to shoot an mp-40 which is the gun cha-cha was supposed to use and I learned everything else but the fighting — Five months’ work, that’s a lot of work. You kept it going. We watch you on Instagram. You and Gabrielle union. Yeah, we go to the same gym called heart and hustle in L.A. — Look. That’s no joke. Eah, they’re so beautiful. Yeah. How often do you work out together. I see them every now and then because sometimes Gabrielle will have a 6:00 appointment and I’ll have an 8:00 appointment and Tracee will be — it’s just nice to see them because they’re so beautiful and positive and we lift each other up in the gym, you know. I love the attitude in the picture, too. You don’t want to mess with us and you know what, Mary J., thanks for being here. Congrats. The “Umbrella academy,” make sure you check it out.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.