Most people may recognize Mary J Blige from her music, in which she has received numerous awards and nominations and has even hosted award ceremonies herself, as well as hosted other events and even performed on Saturday Night Live, and being dubbed as one of the greatest artists of all time. While Mary J Blige has been involved in music since she released her first album in 1992, she added acting to her resume shortly after with a film debut in 2001. From her first film role, Mary J Blige continued to get prolific roles and castings in projects large and small. However, it wasn’t until Mary J Blige and her appearance in The Umbrella Academy that viewers started to acknowledge her true acting skills, especially her incredibly talented singing and songwriting skills. Below we’ve detailed the life and career of the singer and actress, The Umbrella Academy role Mary J Blige had, and how it could bring more strange work for her.
credit: Netflix
Mary J Blige
Mary J Blige in The Umbrella Academy may have been interesting, but the actress appeared in mostly less action-packed comedies than The Umbrella Academy allowed the actress to do. Her music career has been her dominant field of work, as she has turned throughout her entire career since her first album release up until recently. Mary J Blige released fifteen studio albums from 1992 to 2022. Most recently, Mary J Blige performed during the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Anderson. Paak, Kendrick Lamar, and Dr. Dre. As Mary J Blige has been singing and acting for so long, it was only a matter of time before she was cast in something stranger than she was used to with The Umbrella Academy. However, as the role only lasted nine episodes and one year, fans have been hoping for more from Mary J Blige in the time-traveling and unraveling adventures presented within The Umbrella Academy.
credit: Netflix
Acting Career
As for acting, she has earned numerous awards, as Mary J Blige has done everything from theater films to Lifetime movies, appearances in series as herself and other characters, and roles in projects such as The Umbrella Academy. Overall, while Mary J Blige started her acting career with a 2001 film, she didn’t act again until 2009, but her acting work in 2013 with Black Nativity earned her the first nomination in her acting career. While she earned a nomination for her work in the 2013 film, she impressed again in 2017 with Mudbound, which got Mary J Blige nominated for a total of eighteen awards and won six, with one being a runner-up award. While Mary J Blige and her first film role were in 2001, her first acting role as a character outside herself was in 1998 on The Jamie Foxx Show. Outside of acting and playing herself in a role, Mary J Blige has also appeared in various talent competitions such as X Factor, American Idol, and The Voice. With such high-profile acting credits and nominations, one would think, and hope, that Mary J Blige would be willing to do more comedic, action features.
credit: Netflix
Mary J Blige in The Umbrella Academy
As Mary J Blige has had extensive music, acting, and overall career, she was eventually cast in The Umbrella Academy for the role of Cha-Cha, one of two carnival-style-masked assassins sent to eliminate The Umbrella Academy. It would be unlikely to most that Mary J Blige read any of The Umbrella Academy comics or even knew who Gerard Way was before being cast as the role the show didn’t exist before Mary J Blige’s appearance as Cha-Cha, so she didn’t have any material to refer to except the comic. Outside of her character only being in the first season of The Umbrella Academy, she was one of the most consistent forces in the way of The Umbrella Academy in their first world-saving event in the Netflix adaptation of the Dark Horse comic series. Fans, such as myself, have been eager for some sort of return of Mary J Blige as Cha-Cha in the show as she remained the most exciting character outside of the main cast throughout each season. Unfortunately, Mary J Blige only had a one-year deal with Netflix, so her character wasn’t expected to return directly following the first season. Although Netflix only gave Mary J Blige and the actor behind Hazel a one-year deal, the characters were hinted at early in The Umbrella Academy Season 2. With all of the time-altering events that the characters of The Umbrella Academy have been involved in, especially since the first season, fans have remained hopeful that the show could bring back a different timeline’s version of Hazel and Cha-Cha, or at least Mary J Blige’s Cha-Cha.The Umbrella Academy Season 2
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