Recently, I got the opportunity to interview the beautiful and gifted singer Christina Bell on her latest role as “Twinkie Clark” in the upcoming Lifetime film The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel. I’ve got to admit, I was super geeked to speak to her 1:1 and find out more about her experience in taking on such a huge part for this film! Christina Bell from Shreveport, LA., has been singing gospel music for nearly two decades including stage shares with some of the industry’s highly-acclaimed artists like Yolanda Adams, Kirk Franklin, The Clark Sisters, Marvin Winans and more. Christina has an ability to captivate and empower her listeners through song by ministering to core issues in a way that brings healing, courage, freedom and hope. It only makes sense that she would be the elected to play Twinkie’s role in this movie!

One thing that really blessed me when speaking to Christina about preparing for this role is the fact that she was so studious about learning Twinkie Clark first-hand wanting to make sure she did her part justice on camera. Christina shares how she was very strategic about studying who she is and what she does even to the point of learning chord structures and sitting like her at the keyboard. During the process of learning her parts, she explains how she intentionally got with her acting coach to master this character. Prime example, Christina naturally talks much faster than Twinkie and therefore had to focus on slowing her speech down to match the character. She had to learn the art of being slow to speak and practice being careful about her words just as Twinkie is in real life. She even asked Kierra Sheard (Twinkie Clark’s niece) how Twinkie laughs and chews gum.

I asked Christina Bell in what ways she felt that this film parallels with her own life and how she relates to it. Particularly, she says that artists of all of genres should really know their value and not be so quick to sell away their rights for the sake of money or what may appear to be a great opportunity. She encourages artists and creatives to consult legal advice or speak to unbiased parties for wisdom before making brash decisions. Currently, Christina Bell is working on producing more great music in addition to her recent electrifying single release entitled “Going”. She has her own vocal training company called VocalBells, has a t-shirt line to be released in the near future and “yup”, we will likely see much more of Christina Bell on the big screen in the days to come!

For more on Christina Bell, please visit www.officialchristina.com. Lifetime’s The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel, is set to premiere Saturday, April 11th at 8/7c!

*Images Courtesy of Lifetime & Naff Harlow Entertainment

DRESS LIKE A GENT