future perfect?; Not content with pop success, Samantha Mumba wants a

Sunday Herald, The, Jun 9, 2002 by Coffey Edel

High above Dublin's river Liffey, in the penthouse suite of the Morrison Hotel, Samantha Mumba is nowhere to be seen. It's a younger, male version of her that welcomes me at the door. This is her little brother Omero who, it transpires, will be sitting in on the interview.

While we're making chit-chat - Omero's just starting out in the music business and both will travel to Scotland next Sunday to perform at the Irn Bru Live + Loud Festival - Samantha emerges from behind a door and lets out a shocked and seemingly worried "Oh! Sorry!" This is the part where the pop star apologises to the umpteenth journalist she's seen today for holding things up a couple of minutes. Perhaps Mumba is as nice as everybody says she is. Or maybe she's learned how fickle and precious journalists can be. Whatever the reason, Mumba is as sweet and charming as she is beautiful.

She's back in Dublin to promote her debut movie The Time Machine. Having conquered Ireland, Britain and the elusive American market with her pop spin on R&B, the 19-year-old has turned her attention to Hollywood. After four years in the industry Mumba is showing no sign of a sell-by date. In the latest big-screen adaptation of HG Wells's classic sci-fi novel, she - and 12-year-old Omero - star opposite Australian actor Guy Pearce.

"It was funny," she recalls. "I went in thinking I wasn't getting it because management had said it's not to get the role it's just for future experience. So then when I did get the role it was like 'What? What's that all about?'. It was fantastic."

Mumba enjoyed working on the film because it meant she could spend time with her family. "It was the longest we've had to spend with each other because I had been away for so long. My mam was there too, so it was good to get back to being a family again," she says.

But without her own special machine, where does she get the time to juggle a singing career with acting? "I'm busier," she deadpans. "But this" - she indicates the hotel room - "is way more chilled out. When I was in America I did three weeks of promotion and one of the days I was in LA sitting in a room with a girl with a timer and each interviewer had seven minutes. I did 82 interviews that day and I literally had no voice at the end of the day. I felt like a scratched record. I was even nervous doing the interviews with that woman and her stopwatch. It was tough going but cool exposure."

After her many experiences making music videos, it was a relief not to be the centre of attention. "I actually found that so nice and so relaxing. It was great because with a video it's all about you, but with a movie it's this big team of people working together. In the music industry everything is so competitive and everyone is against each other whereas in the film everyone's working together to get this great end result. It was a great atmosphere," she says.

And what was it like working with Memento star Guy Pearce? "He's very serious, very professional," she says. Did they become friends? "Kind of I think actually, no. He's a bit older than me so I don't think we have much in common." She laughs nervously before adding: "He's very inspiring to watch acting."

The day we meet, Mumba is quoted in an Irish newspaper as saying she's "proud to be a bitch".

"Is that what they're writing about? Jesus Christ. When? Okay. Whatever. I'd have been more surprised if it was something truthful."

Sticking with the bitch angle, I mention the small matter of three sacked stylists. "It's actually four now," she says. "I'm a complete shopaholic so image is a lot to me. I don't get on well with people that tell me: 'This is what you're wearing tomorrow.' I'm very much involved with what I wear and my image. I like trying out different people and different images. It's almost four years since I got my record deal so four stylists" - she shrugs - "it's not that crazy."

When Mumba started her career four years ago, she was 15. Obviously, she's done a lot of maturing in the years since. "I probably grew up a little bit quicker. At 15 I was away making sure I had dinner and making sure my clothes were washed in a hotel. I was away a lot, so I kind of cottoned on to that stuff quicker," she says.

She does her own washing then? "I mean kind of a lot of hotels, certainly in LA, you can go downstairs and do your own laundry. I just couldn't be handing my underwear I don't want strangers washing my clothes for me."

As for the future, Mumba is planning on keeping up both her music career and burgeoning acting career: "I want to juggle the two. It was lovely to have the balance of the two." But won't the quality of one or the other have to suffer? "No, no," she says firmly. "It will all work out. Everything happens for a reason. Whatever. Good or bad."

Samantha Mumba - and her younger brother Omero - play the Irn Bru Live + Loud Festival on June 16. The Time Machine is on general release now