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Chloe Bailey and Anjelika Washington are doing some sister soul searching in their new movie “Praise This”!
“Extra’s” Special Correspondent Melissa Knowles sat down with the ladies to dish on the film, in which Chloe plays a rising singer who joins her cousin’s praise team in Atlanta in hopes of winning a national championship.
For the movie, Chloe and Anjelika developed an authentic friendship and chemistry, which was “easy” for them. Chloe explained, “I think we’re both great at being ourselves and we’re both great at accepting the other.”
Anjelika added, “I think we just get each other.”
The two shot the film in Chloe’s hometown Atlanta. She said, “I feel like not only did the movie showcase Atlanta, but it showcased us, in every shape and form and every way that we come, and I love it because it’s showing that with God, you can come exactly the way you are.”
Producer Will Pack felt that Atlanta was the perfect backdrop for the film. He told Melissa, “I love the fact that it’s the seat of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s the seat of Black wealth and power. And I want to tell those stories because Hollywood hasn’t done a lot of that.”
The movie also introduces many to the world of gospel. Anjelika pointed out, “I know a lot of people. They may know a lot of Christian music, like worship music, but they don’t really understand gospel.”
Chloe also opened up about her vulnerable debut album “In Pieces” and feeling like she’s coming into her own.
She dished, “It was easy for me to be vulnerable, because within the past three years, I was really using music as therapy for me and I was expressing myself and things I was afraid to say to certain individuals to their face, I put it in music. So, it really was just about sequencing and putting it as a body of work. It wasn’t like you’re gonna be vulnerable for this project. I was like, you know what? I don’t want to carry this persona or facade that people think of who Chloe Bailey is. I’m just gonna be myself and I hope people accept it. I got to nerd out and produce and engineer myself and really experiment, so I hope people who listened enjoyed it.”
Chloe noted that her sister Halle was “really proud” of her and has been blasting the album in her car.
As for how she stays authentic to herself, Bailey revealed, “I think self-love, and I’m still learning to embrace myself in all of its glory and I think, too, just ignoring what people have to say. I think when you are yourself and you give your all, there’s really nothing else you can say or do to people, whether or not they’re pleased. So, I think I just was fed up of keeping my voice silent, and I’m like here I am, take it or leave it.”
“Praise This” is streaming now on Peacock.