Wilson Morales of Blackfilm.com is reporting that Vh1s biopic Crazy, Sexy, Cool: The TLC Story, a film chronicling the highs and lows of the best-selling female singing group of all time is a ratings smash for the cable network. The film had 4.5 million viewers, making it the highest-rated original cable movie of 2013 and VH1’s highest-rated original movie since the network debuted in 1985. According to SocialGuide, the biopic was the most-tweeted program on television Monday night, generating 1.92 million tweets with the hashtag #CrazySexyCool.
In an exclusive interview with the film’s director, Charles Stone III (Drumline, Mr. 3000), Morales covers topics ranging from how Stone became attached to the project to the unflattering portrayal of Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid to what got left out of the film, like Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins’ high-profile marriage to West Coast rapper Mack 10. Check out an excerpt from the interview below:
BF: In looking at the record breaking ratings, why do you think so many people watched it (the film)?
CS: As much as I would love to find a way to toot my own horn, I can’t because it’s TLC. If you look at their history, the vibration that resonated from their albums is tremendous. They stood for something. They stood for the point of view of young women. They weren’t a flash in the pan, even though they had done four albums, three of which did very well, and two of which has a five year gap in between. That’s incredible and it shows how much love and respect people had for the group. That’s the 4.5 million viewers, and also VH1 did a good marketing job. If the film isn’t good, people will tweet you out of the theater or off television. There is something to be said about what Pop Films created. It’s TLC and they are so beloved.
BF: What about the portrayal of Perri “Pebbles” Reid? The responses on Twitter were not kind to her as the film played Monday night. Was there any thought to getting feedback from her so it didn’t appear to be a one-sided view from TLC?
CS: There are two things to that. From the point of view from T-Boz and Chilli, what they told was really just hitting the surface in terms of the stuff that was going on that people would consider to be really funky. What they tell me and what they have to the press is that everything that is expressed in the film is based in truth. They didn’t distort anything that makes her seem worse that she was. What’s in the film is the lighter version of what Pebbles apparently did or apparently said. Part of it is also, and we all agreed upon this to a certain extent; and it my goal to show the humanity in regards to Pebbles…
Read Wilson Morales’ entire interview with Charles Stone III at Blackfilm.com.
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Hello,
I missed the bio, will it be aired again? Thanks.
Yes, Vh1 airs movies many times over. I’m sure it will be available ON Demand as well. Good luck!
[…] Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid, the woman presented as a thieving, manipulative tyrant in the hit Vh1 biopic ‘The TLC Story’ appeared on The Wendy Williams Show to discuss her “character” in the film. Reid, a […]