She played Faith Evans in the movie Notorious and was recently shouted out by Nas on his single, "Nasty," when he rhymed, "Maserati, pumpin’ Biggie, the great legend/Blastin’, I’m after the actress who played Faith Evans."

Now, actor Antonique Smith will appear alongside Taylor Lautner (from the Twilight movies) in the action-thriller Abduction, which hits theaters September 23. "I kind of liken it to a Mission Impossible," said Smith, who was born and raised in East Orange, New Jersey. "It’s going to be a big weekend." The beautiful blonde bombshell took time out to talk to XXL about her portrayal of Faith, the Nas shout-out and her own budding music career.—Mark Lelinwalla

XXL: How was it growing up in New Jersey?

Antonique Smith: I’m from New Jersey, real Jersey, though. East Orange by Naughty by Nature and them. They were around the corner from me. I was a little girl in the park, watching Treach and them ride by in their cars like, “What’s good!” It was a good time.

Did you grow up on hip-hop?

I grew up listening to everything because my parents were like that. As a singer, though, my influences were Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey. Those were the people I actually grew up singing to. I love everybody from Prince to Coldplay, of course Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyoncé. All that. I even love Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift. System of a Down. I listen to everything… even a little bit of opera.

Nas shouted you out on his current single, "Nasty." How did that feel?

He shouted me out on the song, which I thought was really sweet. I had never met him before and he called me sometime after that and said that he was initially afraid that I’d be upset about it because he wasn’t sure how I took it, but I thought it was sweet. He’s really nice. Word for word, he’s an incredible rapper. I’ve always been a fan and that line is a really dope line. We’re going to do some music together.

Really?

Yeah! I would love that. Like I said, I’ve always been a fan and that’s something I think would be so cool. It was random and awesome that he shouted me out and then it was like, "Ok, he shouted me out, do I reach out to him?" But then he reached out to me, we got cool and we been talking about doing some music. That would be crazy. I think that would be dope!

FOR MORE ANTONIQUE SMITH, GO TO PAGE 2

loading...

Talk to us about playing Faith Evans in Notorious.

It was an opportunity of a lifetime because I was a fan of all the artists that we portrayed in the movie. I got to spend time with Faith. We talked a lot. She let me read the manuscript of her book. It helped me get the back story, reading the manuscript of the book. She was in LA and I was in New York at the time, so I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with her in person, but I used YouTube. That’s also how I prepared for my audition… I was looking at YouTube videos. It was just incredible. It’s so surreal.

You're an artist yourself. How's your music coming along and what's your sound?

Nobody’s heard it because I haven’t put anything out yet. It’s still kind of early. I’m a pop soul artist. Whitney, Aretha, Mariah, that’s kind of like how I sing, but it’s still soulful music with hip-hop undertones. It’s pop soul with a hip-hop appeal to it.

Tell us about Abduction and your role in it.

It’s with Taylor Lautner, who all the little girls love because there were hundreds of girls waiting just to get a glimpse of him when we were shooting in Pittsburgh. It was crazy. He finds a childhood picture of him on a missing persons’ website. It’s like, "Wait a minute, I’m 18, so if I’m missing, who am I?" He starts to look around. He finds out that the people who raised him aren’t his parents. He doesn’t know who to trust. I’m a good guy. I’m a CIA agent and we’re actually chasing Taylor to protect him, but he doesn’t know that. I don’t want to give away the whole plot. There’s another independent movie I did that’s coming out at the end of the year. It’s a pretty, pretty dramatic movie called Yelling to the Sky. It stars me and Zoe Kravitz. We’re sisters. Mom has some mental issues, dad has alcoholic and abusive [issues]. We’re in a crazy family life and Gabby Sidibe [is also in it]. It’s kind of like a coming of age story. I don’t want to give too much away.

How is it balancing the music and acting?

I’m just grateful that everything has been going along the path. I feel a little like a young Diana Ross, a young Barbara Streisand, where I could do movies, I could put out music and I could do musicals.

More From XXL