Venice magazine, November 2003

Photography can be seen in the NonaNet magazine gallery

Entertainer Nona Gaye has experienced her share of heartache during her 29 years, yet she has found the strength to persevere and build a successful career for herself, adopting the motto “no worries” that she heard while working in Australia. The daughter of legendary singer Marvin Gaye, Nona is back on the big screen in the highly anticipated film The Matrix Revolutions.

Landing the role of Zee that originally belonged to singer Aaliyah before her untimely death, Gaye called Aaliyah’s family to talk about taking over the part.

“I decided to call her brother to ask him and his mother if they wanted me to do it, “Gaye explains, “and if they didn’t want me to do it then I would step down because I lost my father at a young age and I know what it’s like not to be able to mourn properly. So knowing what that feels like I wanted to make sure they were okay with it. And after a couple of days her brother got back to me and said, ‘My mother and I talked and we feel Aaliyah would have wanted the film to be finished.’ Afterwards, when they said it was okay it was so bittersweet because no one wants to land a role this way. It took me a moment to get my bearings and feel like I was supposed to be there and that I was a part of the Matrix family.”

Noting that she auditioned for the role of Zee when the film was first being cast, Gaye, admitting disappointment at not getting the part, also says that she knew Zee was in good hands with Aaliyah. “If I wasn’t going to do it at least they gave it to someone who is talented and beautiful and could do it properly.”

Sadly, when Aaliyah passed away Gaye lost two friends in the plane crash. “It was very personal so throughout the entire film it was sometimes difficult but I made the best of it.”

Working on both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions simultaneously in Australia was hard work but a pleasant experience for Gaye whose only other film credit at the time was Ali. “Australia itself is so different from America, not quite as focused on the issues we’re focused on,” she said. “Their saying is ‘no worries’ and it’s very easy-going. That’s just the way it is over there, very calm and friendly. I enjoyed my time over there very much.”

Fans of the Matrix series will remember Gaye as Zee, the wife of Link (Harold Perrineau, Jr.), but in Revolutions her part is expanded and the devoted wife finally gets to take part in all the action. “In Reloaded I was jealous of everyone else. Everybody got to do their kung fu and fly around and I couldn’t wait for Revolutions so I could do the action [too].” Gaye laughs when she says she would often tell fans that approached her after Reloaded that it was merely a teaser for Revolutions.

Born in Washington D.C., Gaye lived in Belgium for two years while her father was running from the IRS.

“He did not want to deal with his taxes so he left the country for two years,” she remarks. She also lived in Hawaii for a year and New York where she admits she feels most at home. “I feel like a New Yorker but I live in Los Angeles.”

Working on The Matrix films gave Gaye the confidence to tackle the role of Holly in the CGI-driven film The Polar Express for director Robert Zemeckis. Starring Tom Hanks, the movie is based on the children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg and is about a doubting young boy who takes an extraordinary train ride to the North Pole. Warner Bros. will release the film in November 2004.

“There’s absolutely no set whatsoever so it’s just me and Tom the whole time reacting off of each other,” Gaye explains. “Luckily, Robert Zemeckis was very patient with me. I was surprised he didn’t say, ‘Can we recast?’ Because I was running around in circles.”

Readying the release of her still untitled album for Epic this February, Gaye is the first to admit she felt the pressure recording her second record. “There’s more pressure because of my father. It’s not as easy. There are big expectations in me.”

Although her 1992 debut featured an R&B hit, “I’m Overjoyed,” it still didn’t meet her expectations. “It was huge in Japan and I had a wonderful experience there but it didn’t do well here so I dropped out of the music business for a little while. Now I’m a grown-up. I’m a mother. I have more experience now and I have something to say, so that helps. When I did my last album, I had just turned 17 and I had no creative input.”

But don’t expect to find a cover of any of her father’s songs on her upcoming release. “I’m partial to waiting until I reestablish myself musically the way I would like to. I want people to know who I am and then I can go there so that it doesn’t look like I’m trying to pull on my father’s coattails.”

Although Gaye appeared on stage for the first time at three weeks old, her earliest memory of being in front of an audience is with their father on “Soul Train”. “I think he even knew then that I was to [be an entertainer].”

In addition to the release of her album, February will also find Gaye at the NBA All-Star game in Los Angeles at Staples Center where she will sing the National Anthem with her father, celebrating the remarkable rendition he delivered at the All-Star game at the Forum in 1983. When asked if she has ever attempted to take on the song that her father did so beautifully she is genuinely taken aback, asking, “Is that a loaded question?

“It’s the 20^th anniversary of his doing that at the All-Star game and I’m going to perform it with him. We’re going to duet. I’m going to come out live and we’re going to have him on the screen and we’re going to do it together.”

Twenty years ago her father shocked many people when he sang the National Anthem with an R&B beat. One of the greatest renditions of the anthem ever performed, Gaye notes that her father had his doubts. “Nobody had the you-know-what to do that and he did get a lot of flack because he put a funky beat behind it and changed it up and by the end of the song people were clapping their hands to the beat and women were screaming and throwing their underwear on the court. That doesn’t happen when people sing the National Anthem. I think people were taken aback by how brilliant it was. But he was terrified. Before he went out he said, ‘People are going to murder me.’ But that was who my dad was. He would think about things like that and then do what he wanted anyway if he felt it was true and right. He wanted to do something that would move the minds of men.”

Proud of her musical legacy as well as her onscreen work, Gaye, the mother of six-year-old Nolan, doesn’t like to label herself as a singer or an actress. “I’m a singer and an actress. I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying I’m an actress who sings or a singer who acts because I love them equally. And they both feed my soul and give me breathing room and make me feel alive when I’m doing both of them. I don’t really know how to do much else. I don’t have a college education and the only other thing that I know how to do really well is cook and mother. I’m a good caretaker. To be perfectly honest, the only skills that I know that I have that I can count on are my singing and acting career, so I’m scared because I don’t have much to fall back on.”

When told that she can always open her own restaurant where she can sing as well, the lovely Gaye lights up and beams when talking about two of her favorite dishes, cilantro salmon baked with chili cheese Fritos, and her spaghetti.

Currently up for three film projects Gaye is anxious to get her career rolling and hopes the audience will take time to see the messages in the Matrix films. “I think you need to look at the whole Matrix trilogy as a whole to really understand it. What Matrix is about to me is love and sacrifice and giving oneself for something greater than you and not really focusing on yourself. My character, Zee, is more concerned with her husband and making sure that he is safe and able to get home and making sure that her home and family are protected. I hope that people take away with them that she was strong and selfless and that she had bravery and that love was her driving force. We’re all selfish at one point or another in our lives and I think that we all look and strive for enlightenment and that’s what the Matrix is all about – understanding and coming together to be harmonious. I hope that people get that.”

- JOSE MARTINEZ