WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
There was a lot of discussion earlier this year regarding Cassie when she took to the stand to testify in the P. Diddy trial and strangely that got me thinking about her career. Of course, I knew her as a singer when I was younger – I was obsessed with listening to Me & U and Long Way to Go but hearing about her starring in a film with Michael B Jordan (if you know about the case, you’ll understand why that came up), I was curious what other acting she may have done.
Honey 3: Dare to Dance
Following in the footsteps of Jessica Alba and Kat Graham, Cassie takes on the lead role in this third entry to the dance franchise (I didn’t even know there was a second let alone a third). The way the film opens it feels like Fast and the Furious meets Step Up with the amount of cars and dancing that takes place within the first few minutes. This is the first Honey film to be set outside of America, taking place in South Africa. The weird part though, apart from a couple of characters – no one has a South African accent! Strangely, not only her character but her acting reminds me a lot of Jessica Alba in the original film – not too sure if that is on purpose or not. I also quite like the premise! OK, it kind of helps that I’m a Shakespeare fan but I love the idea of hip-hop Romeo and Juliet – especially as it’s not one of my favourites. Interestingly, for the lead of a dance film and of a dance production in the film – Cassie dances very little throughout for someone who has a dance background.
Step Up 2: The Streets
I was expecting Cassie to be playing the lead in this film, like she had in Honey 3 – given her dance background. This might be because our lead character has connections to the lead of the first film so it meant that they had a flow from one film to the next. She is introduced to Andie, and the audience, as “Side-walk” Sophie by Moose and features as Andie’s love rival when it comes to Chase Collins. Strangely, I had always remembered this film as Sophie being the one that dobs in Andie and Chase’s new dance crew to the director of the school due to her jealousy of how close they get. Given that she is supposed to be this “love rival” style character, it is surprising how small her role is in the grand scheme of the whole film. Even more strangely, even though they share the screen a few times, I don’t think Sophie and Andie interact at all throughout the film. I guess technically she gives them up at the end of the film but she does so in the same breath as trying to defend their behaviour.
The Perfect Match
I would normally start out with the words that these aren’t my type of film but then when covering Queen Latifah I really enjoyed Last Holiday so I went into this more open minded. Having said that, this film is pretty awkward at times because conversations seem really strange especially when Charlie’s sister gives psychological advice to one of her brother’s hook-ups. On top of that, the slow-mo when Charlie first catches sight of Eva, played by Cassie, as she leaves his company’s conference room and them ordering exactly the same drink – CLICHÉ! They added the latter in Heart Eyes as well and I thought it was cheesy! I’ll say this much though, I do like the fact that Eva approaches Charlie about hooking up instead of the other way around. With all that in mind, it is pretty hard to judge her acting because no one is exactly impressive. We also don’t really get to know her character of Eva much before she gets her kit off and they’re sleeping together. I’ll say this much though, I’m glad we didn’t get a cliché ending of her leaving her husband to be with Charlie.
Honorary Mentions
There isn’t actually much to add here considering Cassie only made two other films outside of those featured in this article. Back in 2003, she appeared in her first film Barbarian as Harem. After this and the films above, she appeared in Hip Hop Family Christmas Wedding in 2022.
