Beyoncé’s Mom Said the Singer Became Her Alter-Ego Sasha Fierce When She Was Acting Like a ‘Crazy Person’
Beyoncé’s alter ego is Sasha Fierce, a persona that only comes out when she is on stage performing. She said that she can feel the alter ego take over as she prepares for a concert, and it helps her deliver a powerful performance. Her mother, Tina Knowles, said that some parts of Sasha Fierce come out offstage. Knowles said that whenever Beyoncé acts “crazy,” she knows that Sasha Fierce has taken over.
Beyoncé’s alter ego is Sasha Fierce
Beyoncé said her Sasha Fierce persona allows her to become a performer.
“It’s kind of like doing a movie. When you put on the wig and put on the clothes, you walk different,” she told Oprah Winfrey. “It’s no different from anyone else. I feel like we all kind of have that thing that takes over.”
She slips into the role when she becomes nervous before a concert. Suddenly, she’ll feel prepared to get in front of an audience.
“Usually when I hear the chords, when I put on my stilettos. Like the moment right before when you’re nervous,” she said. “Then Sasha Fierce appears, and my posture and the way I speak and everything is different.”
According to her mother, Beyoncé’s cousin gave her that nickname because of the way she behaves while she’s preparing for a show. To them, it felt like a completely different person surfaced.
“Her cousin Angie gave her that name,” Knowles told Elle. “We’d tease Beyoncé about having a split personality. Me and Angie and Ty, her stylist, would work with her doing a quick change when she’d come off the stage between sets. Beyoncé would start screaming, ‘What’s wrong with you? Where’s my shoe?’ ‘Uh oh,’ we’d say, ‘Sasha is here.’”
Knowles said they didn’t take anything she said personally when she was in this zone.
“I’m like, This is some crazy person who’s doing this quick change,” she said. “She’s another person up there. We don’t take it personally. Sasha is her bragging side … I don’t know whether to say it, but her hip-hop side.”
Beyoncé shared how Etta James influenced her to be more like Sasha Fierce
Beyoncé strengthened her connection to Sasha Fierce when she played Etta James in Cadillac Records. The singer was brashly herself, as Beyoncé is when she is Sasha Fierce.
“Etta was bold and unapologetic,” she said. “Whatever she loved, she did. She said whatever she felt.”
She said it was exhausting to show that much emotion during the shoot, though.
“It was freeing, but it was also the most emotionally draining time of my life,” she said. “Every day I would come home, my eyes would be completely swollen.”
She said she’s not like her alter ego in real life
While her mother described it as a split personality, Beyoncé said Sasha Fierce is just a way for her to step away from her more reserved side.
“I don’t have a split personality but I’m really very country and would rather have no shoes on and have my hair in a bun and no makeup,” she told Rolling Stone. “And when I perform, this confidence and this sexiness and this whatever it is that I’m completely not just happens. And you feel it, and you just start wildin’ and doin’ stuff that don’t even make sense, like the spirit takes over.”
She said this is what she loves about performing.
“That magic, that’s what I love,” she said. “If you see me on TV, I’m not a humble, shy person, but it’s a transformation into that. It’s a job. In real life I’m not like that.”
