When Lil Mama arrived on set for the first day of shooting VH1’s “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,” the Brooklyn rapper knew she was meant to play the role of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. One of the very first scenes shot was a reconstruction of the girl group’s award-winning “No Scrubs” video, during which Lil Mama and her costars, Drew Sidora (playing Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins) and Keke Palmer (Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas), wore the exact same costumes the group did in the 1999 futuristically themed music clip.
“The other girls needed to have alterations done to their costumes,” Lil Mama (born Niatia Jessica Kirkland) tells The Post. “Mine fit perfectly — it didn’t need any work. It was my Cinderella moment!”
But it takes more than just a well-fitting costume to play someone as vibrant as Left Eye. The biopic, which premieres Monday on VH1 at 9 p.m., tells the story of one of the biggest-selling girl groups of all time, which lit up the 1990s with classy R&B hits like “Waterfalls,” “Creep” and “Unpretty.” Although Lil Mama has scored a few hits of her own — most notably with “Lip Gloss” (2007) and “Shawty Get Loose” (2008) — her portrayal of Lopes’ musical talent, giant personality and erratic private life are set to get her noticed as an actor.
Capturing Lopes’ life would be a challenge for even the most seasoned actor. Having endured a strict upbringing by her father (who abused Lopes’ mother), she battled alcohol problems and had a famously torrid relationship with NFL star Andre Rison. The pair made headlines in 1994 when Lopes burned down Rison’s house after a fight. Hardly surprising is the fact that she is known as the “crazy” in TLC’s “CrazySexyCool” tagline.
Lil Mama captures all of these facets of Lopes’ colorful spirit staggeringly well. She says she spent hours and hours scouring the Internet, studying rare footage of her subject.
“I remember walking up to T-Boz and Chilli on set, and they backed away from me! They freaked out, because, at first sight, I reminded them so much of Lisa,” she says. “Lisa’s sister, Reigndrop, also visited us on set. She broke down and started crying, but she told me that it was a good thing.”
More important than Lil Mama’s ability to re-create Lopes physically is how she portrays the late R&B star’s change in personality over the years — from wide-eyed and innocent in her youth, to more egotistical and closed-off in the years leading up to her tragic 2002 death in a car wreck in Honduras at age 30. “As she grew and she learned the industry, and her heart had been broken, her personality changed — for the greater and the worse,” Lil Mama says. “It was important for me to get that transition across.”
Lopes’ complex relationship with her father, Ronald, is also alluded to in the film. Despite Ronald’s disciplinarian nature, Lil Mama says Lopes loved and respected her father, who died before TLC made it big. “Her dad was an entertainer, too, but didn’t quite make it, so I think he came across as strict because he wanted Lisa to have a backup plan,” she adds. “That made Lisa want to prove herself to her dad. I know she wished her dad could have seen how successful she eventually became.”
Lil Mama’s mimicry has so impressed the remaining members of TLC that she was invited to join them onstage to perform “No Scrubs” this summer during festival dates in Hershey, Pa., and Toronto. With TLC currently making their comeback as a duo, rumors are swirling that Lil Mama might end up replacing Lopes in the group for real. But it’s something she doesn’t seem too keen on.
“If T-Boz and Chilli asked me to sing with them again, I would. The door is always open,” she says. “But I don’t think I could do it permanently. Lisa was only a size 4 or 4 ½ — but her shoes are still too big for me to fill!”