EXCLUSIVE: Mary J. Blige Releases Her ‘Inner Witch’ in ‘The Wiz Live’

This ain’t your usual Mary.

As Mary J. Blige gears up for tomorrow’s airing of The Wiz Live, the R&B songstress opened up to ESSENCE about playing Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West.

“I get so much release out of playing a witch because that’s the person you have to keep kicking back,” she said with a laugh. “Man, it’s nice to play her, with the nails and just being real selfish and self-centered and hateful.”

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The monumental opportunity of starring in The Wiz is not lost on Blige, who says that she has worshipped both the play and the movie since she was young.

“The Wiz is everything,” she said. “It molded us. It helped us be who we are today…This thing is big for me.”

So what can we expect from Blige’s performance tomorrow night? She’s keeping mum, but she did admit that she put her own special MJB spin on the character.

“I didn’t take it away from the traditional way,” she says, ‘But I just did a little ‘Mary’ on it.’”

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to catch Mary J. Blige and the rest of the star-studded cast during the live production Thursday, December 3 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.