DADDY’S GIRL GROWS UP

"Good Housekeeping" magazine, January 2002

Interview by Celeste Fremon

Photography by Julie Dennis Brothers

Photography can be seen in the NonaNet magazine gallery

 

On the brink of stardom, Nona Gaye--daughter of soul legend Marvin Gaye--talks about losing her father and embracing the future.

 

Nona Gaye steps into the lobby of the Wyndham Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood wearing a sky-blue fifties-style sundress, sexy high-heeled sandals, and large glamour-girl sunglasses. She looks like she's already a movie star, and everyone in the room glances, at least surreptitiously, in her direction. Tall, with lush features, Nona bears a striking resemblance to her legendary father, soul singer Marvin Gaye.

 

At 27, Nona is not yet famous in her own right. But her featured role opposite Will Smith in Ali, a new movie about the world's most celebrated boxing champion, may change all that. Without any previous experience, Nona snagged the role of Muhammad Ali's second wife, Belinda, out from under the noses of several better-known actresses. "It was my first audition ever," she says between sips of coffee. "When I went to read with the casting director, I was so completely terrified, I couldn't make my lip stop quivering." In fact, Nona was so positive she'd blown her shot that she sat in her car sobbing miserably after the reading. But over the next week, she was asked to read six more times. When the call saying she had won the part finally came, Nona's shriek of joy was so loud that her four-year-old son, Nolan, wondered if his mom had hurt herself. "It was surreal to actually go out and get what I wanted," Nona says, "because usually it doesn't work that way for me."

 

Her late father's hit songs (including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Sexual Healing") continue to play regularly on the radio. But the sublimely talented singer had battled both depression and cocaine addiction. As a result, he and his second wife, Nona's mother, Janis, lived apart during much of Nona's childhood. "We had periods where we were together like a regular family," she says. "But my mom and dad's relationship was really rocky. They loved each other but couldn't be together very long."

 

Despite the separations, Marvin did his best to stay connected to his three kids (in addition to a brother, Nona has a half brother from her father's first marriage). "I didn't have a lot of time with my dad," Nona says, "but the time that I did have is fixed in my memory." On some days, her famous father would sing to her for hours; other days he'd teach her to cook. "Then a lot of times we'd just play. My dad was very silly, a total goofball," Nona says with a laugh. "I realize that wasn't exactly his image. But let's just say we had a lot of whoopee cushions around our house." Nona clearly recalls the time Marvin thrilled his kids by going a couple of rounds with Muhammad Ali for a celebrity benefit. "Obviously Muhammad went easy on him," Nona says. "But I remember my dad really trained for that fight."

 

In 1984, when Nona was nine, her father was shot to death by his own father during an argument. (Marvin senior later pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to five years' probation.) Estranged from Nona's mother at the time, Marvin had been living with his parents. Nona still vividly remembers the fateful day: "My brother and I were watching TV, and my mom ran into the living room, hysterical," Nona says, the painful memories clouding her face. "I kept asking her, `What's wrong? What's wrong?' And she kept saying, `I don't know yet!'" Janis, who had heard what happened secondhand, ran into the bathroom, pulling the phone with her. She called the police, hoping the story was false, only to have them confirm the awful news. "Then I heard my mom scream in a way that was different from anything I'd ever heard before or since," Nona says. "And as soon as I heard it, I knew he was dead."

 

When Nona lost her father, the family also lost its only source of income. Marvin had been one of Motown's best-selling artists, but bad advice, drugs, and huge IRS claims had demolished his estate, and there was nothing left to help Janis Gaye make ends meet. "My mom had been with my dad since she was seventeen," Nona says, "and now she had two kids and no job. I don't know how she managed, but somehow she did. I'm not kidding when I say my mom is my hero."

The next few years were anguished and confusing for the vulnerable Nona. Kids at school made cruel remarks, while grieving fans latched on to her in public. Finally, at 17, she dropped out of high school and recorded an album, which sold few copies. After that, Nona made a living modeling for the Ford agency and had her son (she and Nolan's dad didn't marry). Mostly she withdrew. "When my album bombed, I pretty much curled up and sucked my paws," she says. "But I think I came out of it stronger."

 

Today, as she prepares for a whirlwind of publicity for Ali, Nona seems contemplative. "I can feel it already," she says, "that my whole life is about to change. It kind of scares me." Her worst fear, she confesses, is of losing herself in the storm to come. "I'm scared that I'll lose touch with who I am. I know so many people that's happened to." Nona's voice trails off, but it's clear that one of those people was her father.

 

If he were alive to advise her, "I think my dad would tell me to be really, really careful to steer clear of the demons that are in my bloodline," Nona says with a small smile. "And I am. I don't drink, I don't smoke. I'm doing everything I can do to stay away from what I know could destroy me."

 

During anxious moments, Nona says she "talks" to her father. "This'Il sound weird," she says, "but I talk to him through his music. I ask him things like, `Dad, if I got the part in the movie, just come on the radio. If I can find your song in the next five minutes, then I'll know I have the part.'" Nona gives a self-conscious shrug. "I've never had it not work."

 

Though she has no immediate plans for a second album, if she does record again, it will be songs she has written herself. "I've written a lot about my son," she says. But Nona Gaye's aspirations are not all tied up with fame or becoming a movie star. For one thing, she'd like to find a nice man to love. Most important, "I want my little boy to be proud of me. I'm a woman now, and I have my son's life to think about. In ten years, I want to be known as a good mother, a good woman. Everything else comes second."