Mr. and Mrs.: makin' it happen - interview with husband-and-wife producers Tracey and Kenneth Edmonds - Interview

Interview, Dec, 1997 by Veronica Webb

Babyface, the hottest music producer around, is now one half of what could be the hottest movie-producing team around. With his wife, Tracey, working at his side, he's helping to change the limited old adage "Behind every great man is a great woman" to read: Next to every great man or woman is a great partner

"I'm not going to talk too much because this is really about Tracey." Those were the first words out of Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds's mouth as we began this interview in the Biedermeier-furnished Beverly Hills mansion he shares with Tracey Edmonds, his wife and the mother of their son, Brandon. This is a strong pledge of support from a singer, songwriter, and producer who has been familiar to the listening public for a decade as the man behind such hit singles as Madonna's "Take a Bow" and Eric Clapton's "Change the World," and the multiplatinum soundtrack to the movie Waiting to Exhale.

This fall Edmonds Entertainment, founded by the couple, produced the low-budget surprise-hit movie Soul Food. The film is a universal tale of family life starring Vanessa L. Williams, Vivica A. Fox, and Nia Long. Its content is emblematic of Tracey and Kenneth's position in the black community, where they are known for their ability, through the example of both their personal life and their professional partnership, to "make family values cool."

VERONICA WEBB: When I heard that Tracey and Babyface were going to make movies, I thought, Oh my God, it's like Michael Jordan going into baseball. I was nervous for you.

TRACEY EDMONDS: We were too. But both of us seemed to have a passion for film, so we formed Edmonds Entertainment. And then, right in the middle of the process of doing our first work for Fox, a script for Soul Food was sent over. The studio was looking for someone to do the soundtrack, but after I read the script I was blown away.

VW: How fast did the project come together?

TE: We got the script in July and started shooting at the start of November. We had a tiny budget, but we made it. Luckily, everybody was really excited about the story, the characters - all of it. One thing we did have to do, though, was add a few extra lines to the guys' parts, because at first they didn't have much to say.

VW: In that sense, the warm-up for Soul Food was Waiting to Exhale.

TE: Yes. People needed to see that black films can be successful.

VW: Are you going to make another movie like Soul Food, since there's obviously a huge market for it?

TE: We'd love to. We're always looking for quality projects. And we're not just looking for black films.

VW: When you're producing records, you have to work with people who have movie-star-sized egos. How do you seduce them into giving a performance? Do you have to put your own ego aside?

KENNETH EDMONDS: Yeah, I think basically you do that; you work together. Chances are, you're not gonna come out with something great. It might be a huge hit, it might not; but you learn something doing it.

VW: But there are obviously differences between working with a record company on a soundtrack and with a studio on a film.

KE: The hardest lesson is that in making films, the studio has major control over you. It's not quite like a record company. You can mess around a little there. But with a studio, they're rough. And they were that way with Soul Food because -

TE: It was our first film.

KE: And because we were ethnic. And there are things we didn't get that other people would've. But you know what? You don't cry about that.

VW: Why did you want to branch out from music to movies?

KE: I wanted a change. The most exciting thing for all of us is movies and movie stars. I mean, it's nice to know Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, but when you're sitting next to a movie star, that's a whole 'nother thing.

VW: Tracey, what do you have to do to get people as talented as Vanessa Williams or John Travolta, who you're working with now?

TE: Just talk to them, and try to reason with them, even though their ego's out there. I think there are more cool people than big-ego people.

VW: It's an odd thing: You have to learn how to make yourself big, and you have to learn how to make yourself small - how to be everything that people want you to be.

TE: Exactly.

VW: Tracey, how did you and Kenny meet?

TE: [to KE] You can tell that long story. [laughs]

KE: I was doing auditions at the mall for girls to be in the video "Whip Appeal." [People working with me] went up to Tracey and asked her if she'd ever been in a video before, and she said no. And they said, "Would you like to be in one?" And she said, "I'm not sure." They told her who the video was for, and she didn't know who I was.

TE: That night I went to the record store. I'd heard the name Babyface, but I couldn't put Babyface to which song. [laughs] I wanted to make sure he was cute, too, before I committed to -

VW: Wait, were you gonna be the only girl?

TE: That's what I thought. But let him finish.

KE: She came to the audition. It was a cattle call.

TE: Their chance to meet pretty girls.

KE: We were casting for three hundred women.