New music? A fashion show? Rihanna’s putting in work, work, work, work for resurgence in ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’
On Sept. 1, Rihanna opens Good Girl Gone Bad, a big-budget film that will premiere a week before its world premiere at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, at which it will appear in competition.
“In the last two weeks, I’ve been learning how to dance to my own music. I’m learning how to work on my body like I used to. I’ve been going to the gym. I’m learning how to cook new food. I’ve been cleaning my house…. Everything is kind of becoming new to me.”
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In the last two weeks, I’ve been learning how to dance to my own music. I’m learning how to work on my body like I used to. I’ve been going to the gym. I’m learning how to cook new food. I’ve been cleaning my house…. Everything is kind of becoming new to me.
— Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad
Rihanna may have a new focus, but the Good Girl Gone Bad concept itself remains the same. The “anti-capitalist, anti-police state” film, which was originally planned to be made in early 2014 as the lead-up to her “Rude Boy” world tour, will be the first time in 12 years that the singer-songwriter has created a film. In addition, its production has cost over $100 million.
For over a year, before it was made, Rihanna has lived in a self-designed private residence, complete with a separate house in New York City (where she spent Thanksgiving with her parents), her own art studio and a private gym.
In keeping with her self-proclaimed anti-capitalist stance, Rihanna has also made it clear she will never work for an entertainment company for, say, $20 million, she says, calling the financial terms offered for her songs “unbelievably fair.”
In the end, it all comes down to Rihanna’s music. Just as her name represents a new beginning, Good Girl Gone Bad is a return to the “first love.”
Rihanna’s former manager Guy