MERCY, MERCY NONA

Honey magazine, November 2002

Photo by Kwaku Alston

Photography can be seen in the NonaNet magazine gallery

With two Matrix flicks under her belt and a new album on the way, doors are opening for Marvin Gaye’s girl

Some of y’all may remember Hollywood newbie Nona M. Gaye from her heavyweight role opposite Will Smith in Ali, but she’s really knocking out critics in the next two installments of The Matrix – filling the slot tragically left vacant by Aaliyah. “I was very reflective throughout the film,” says Gaye, 28, who lost several friends in that fatal plane crash. “It was bittersweet.” Physically brutal, too: “Jumping and diving, tripping and flipping – it was pretty hard-core,” she says. “Those ‘ows!’ and ‘ughs!’ are real.”

While Nona clearly gives her all to acting, she’s equally committed to singing. The daughter of Marvin Gaye, she put out a record while in her teens – one that she admits was no masterpiece. “I was young and easily influenced. I’m a grown woman now, more aware of the message I send,” she says of her new album, due out by year’s end. How does she deal with the pressure of her father’s legacy? “I can’t even try to fill his shoes, but I can do my very best to make sure I don’t compromise my own musical integrity.”

It’ll take hard work, but Nona claims to have few distractions. “I used to be such a party girl, but I got tired of it,” says the former wild child. Although she was once romantically linked with Prince, these days the only man in her life is her 5-year-old son, Nolan. “I don’t have a boyfriend, I don’t have a plaything, I don’t have anything!” Gaye says, laughing.

We disagree. Nona Gaye’s got what counts.

- NINA MALKIN