VANESSA WILLIAMS’ LONG AND BUMPY ROAD TO INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

VANESSA WILLIAMS’ LONG AND BUMPY ROAD TO INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

瓦妮莎·威廉斯漫长而崎岖的成功之路

Vanessa Williams grew up in a tight-knit, upper-middle-class community north of New York City. Her parents, Helen and Milton, were music teachers who got to spend afternoons and summers with Vanessa and her younger brother, Christopher, As a girl, Vanessa was involved in an overload of activities: Girl Scouts, dance, theater, track. She fitted in with her mostly white classmates, but she nevertheless learned about racism at an early age, “I knew I was different. I was called ‘nigger.’ But I never felt that an opportunity couldn’t be mine because of my skin color. My mother always said, ‘You’re going to have to do better than anyone else just to be considered equal. But anything is possible.’”

When Williams was crowned Miss America back in 1983, she was a talented and strikingly beautiful 20-year-old Syracuse University student majoring in musical theater. The plan was that her reign would help launch her successfully to Broadway. The reality, however, took a few unexpected and nightmarish detours along the way.

First, with the title came the weight of expectations: As Miss America, she symbolized purity; as the first black woman to capture the crown, she became a symbol for her entire race. “It was a lot for a 20-year-old to take on.” She wound up getting criticized from every side. “For some people in the black community, I wasn’t black enough because of my looks or how I spoke. For white supremacists I was too black.” Less than a year later, provocative nude photos of her surfaced in Penthouse, and her reign as the first black Miss America came to a scandalous halt .In the middle of the media frenzy that followed, Williams met Ramon Hervey, an L.A..-based publicist who was brought in to do damage control. A few years late, he became her husband and manager.

Hervey’s plan was for Williams to focus on her singing. Recording and producing albums would give her some measure of control over her career and serve as an image rebuilder, though certain showbiz “authorities” doubted that Williams would ever be able to recover from the scandal. Harvey’s plan was proving to be a savvy one. Williams’ three albums--The Right Stuff (1988), The Comfort Zone (1991), and The Sweetest Days (1994)--have sold over 4 million copies and garnered nine Grammy nominations. And “Colors of the Wind,” the theme song from Pocahontas, which she sang, won an Oscar nomination (it later snagged the Oscar) and gave Williams the opportunity to perform at last year’s Academy Awards.

Williams’ acting career got a jump start in 1994, when she was offered the title role in the Broadway hit Kiss of the Spider Woman. The next year, Williams learned that the female lead in a big-budget Schwarzenegger film was being cast, so she booked herself a flight out to L.A. for a meeting with Eraser’s producer and director. Her gutsiness, along with her impressive screen test, convinced the producer and director to hire her, despite their initial reluctance.

The roles are more plentiful these days. In Hoodlum, Williams plays a nurse who falls in love with a Harlem ganster. In Soul Food, a low-budget story about African-American family ties, Williams plays a smart, tough, and ultimately betrayed wife. And in The Odyssey, a TV miniseries shot in Turkey, she plays the goddess Calypso.

“Movies are great,” she said, “but for me, Broadway is the ultimate. I can’t wait to go back.”

瓦妮莎·威廉斯成长于纽约市北部一个联系紧密的中上层阶级的社区。她的双亲，海伦和米尔顿，都是音乐教师。他们常常和瓦妮莎及她的弟弟克里斯托弗共度下午时光和盛夏。瓦妮莎从小就参与了大量的活动：女子童子军、跳舞、戏剧、田径。她虽能适应由绝大多数白人组成的班级，但她早年就了解了种族主义。她说：“我知道我与众不同。我被人叫做‘黑鬼’。但我从未感到只因我的肤色某一个机会就不会属于我。我母亲常说，‘要想被人一视同仁，你得比别人都做得好。但任何事都有可能发生。’”

1983年当威廉斯荣膺美国小姐桂冠时，她仅20岁，才华出众，美丽非凡，是锡拉丘兹大学音乐戏剧专业的学生。她本计划借助美国小姐的荣誉成功地进军百老汇。然而现实的道路却拐了几个出人意料的可怕的弯。

首先，伴随着美国小姐头街而来的是沉重的期望：作为美国小姐，她象征着纯洁；作为第一个获得桂冠的黑人，她代表了整个种族。“对于一个20岁的女孩承受的压力太多。”结果她受到来自各方面的批评。“黑人社区的一些人认为，因为我的长相和我说话的方式，我黑得不纯。而那些白种优越者却认为，我太黑了。”不到一年，她的全裸色情照片刊登在“Penthouse”杂志上，爆发丑闻，她作为第一位黑人美国小姐的历史宣告结束。随后媒介猛炒这件丑闻，其间瓦妮莎结识了雷蒙·赫维。他是洛杉矶的一名公关人员，被请来控制丑闻对瓦妮的伤害。几年后，他成为她的丈夫及经理。

赫维的计划是让威廉斯集中精力演唱。录音和制作唱片会使她对自己的事业有些控制，而且也可挽回形象，但是一些演艺界的权威人士怀疑威廉斯是否能从丑闻的阴影下走出。赫维的计划证明是明智的。威廉斯的三张唱片——“正确的东西”（1988），“舒适区域”（1991）和“最甜蜜的日子”（1994）——已经卖出400万张并获得9项葛菜美大奖的提名。由她演唱的动画片“风中奇缘”的主题曲“风的色彩”赢得一项奥斯卡奖提名（之后夺得此奖），并使她获得在去年奥斯卡奖颁发晚会上演出的机会。

威廉斯的演出生涯在1994年获得飞跃。她被邀请主演百老汇的轰动歌剧“蜂蛛女之吻”。第二年威廉斯得知斥巨资拍摄由施瓦辛格主演的一部电部电影正在挑选女主角，因此她订机票来到洛杉矶与这部名为“毁灭者”的电影导演及制片人进行会面。她的果敢同她生动的银幕试镜说服了制片人及导演雇用她，尽管他们开始时很犹豫。

现在威廉斯的银幕角色更多了。在“恶棍”一片中，她饰演爱上哈菜姆一个暴徒的护士。在“灵魂食粮”这部低成本讲述非洲裔美国人家庭纽带的影片中，威廉斯扮演一名精明、坚强但最终被背叛的妻子。在“奥德赛”这部在土耳其摄制的超短电视系列剧中，她出演女神卡利普索。

“拍电影很好，”她说。“但对我来说，百老汇才是我的最终处所。我急切地想返回舞台。”