Evan Ross has officially been unmasked as Stingray on this season of The Masked Singer.
A child of music royalty, it comes as no surprise that the final song he crooned on the hit Fox show was The Weeknd’s “Star Boy,” and his final clue, being a nod to his godfather, Michael Jackson’s iconic blinged-out glove, was the icing on the cake.
“I’m friends with them,” Ross said of the judges and host Nick Cannon, in an exit interview with Blavity’s Shadow and Act, noting that it came as no surprise that there was a rare unanimous vote that he was the person behind the Stingray costume.
“There’s no way they don’t know it’s me,” he mentioned, adding, “I didn’t talk to them the whole time,” he continued. “I kept being like, ‘I can’t believe they’re not texting me, because there’s no way with those clues that they don’t think it’s me.’ I’ve known them so long. I’ve known Nick Cannon since I was 15 years old. When I was standing next to Nick, I barely could see him, because when he looked over me, I was like, ‘Oh, there’s no way. He doesn’t know it’s me for a fact.'”
Reflecting on Michael Jackson’s presence in his life
During the double-elimination episode, where Ross was unmasked alongside Judge Greg Mathis, the actor and son of legendary singer Diana Ross, revealed that Michael Jackson always made him feel like “everything was magic.”
“I feel like Michael is such a genius, but I think there was something so amazing about the fact that he just wanted everybody to believe in magic,” Ross recalled. “So he would take time to find ways for you to see something you’ve never seen before, even in his performances. I don’t think anybody that’s been to a Michael Jackson concert probably doesn’t care to go to any other concert ever again, honestly, because it’s that amazing, and he would give his all. It would be this incredible sense of power on that stage,” adding, as Stingray, he wasn’t trying to tap into Michael, but “Michael will always be my inspiration, so my mom, Stevie Wonder, all those people, Marvin Gaye.” He continued, “But it was kind of fun because you’re in that costume so much you do find you do become not yourself, not like Evan Ross before when you become this kind of character, the way your body moves, how tight the pants are, and how heavy the head is, you start becoming this different kind of character, and I couldn’t see anything either.”
Celebrating 20 years of his feature film debut in ‘ATL’
March 28, 2006, will mark the 20th anniversary of Ross’ breakout film ATL, in which he starred alongside Atlanta rapper T.I., Lauren London, Jackie Long, Jason Weaver and a host of others, with all of whom he says he’s still close.
“That sounds so crazy to me,” he said, reflecting on the fact that it’s been two decades since the Chris Robinson film was released.
“I spoke with T.I. I think maybe two weeks ago, because I was congratulating him on his new single [“Let ‘Em Know”]. That song is so good,” Ross continued. “And it’s such his vibe. I keep playing it. We’re all still so close from that cast.” He added, “Wherever I go, that’s the film they know me by, and they know all the lines.”
He also shared a never-told story of the moment that led to Big Boi’s appearance in the film as Marcus, a drug dealer who took Ross’ character under his wing.
“I went out to the club, I mean, I shouldn’t have been at the club, but I think it was called Compound, and that place was crazy, but outside the front of it was packed with people, and I was in the car with Chris Robinson, and Big Boi was walking out, and I remember him just leaning out the window, and Chris Robinson obviously worked with him as a video director, and he was like, ‘You want to be in this movie?’ Literally, that’s how that happened.”
He added, “Two days later, Big Boi was on set, and we were shooting, and Big Boi adlibbed. That was not written down. None of that stuff when we were with the dogs, and he’s like, “Boy, you’re shaking like a stripper…” All that stuff. He was brilliant, and he had never acted before. He was so good.”
Ross has more creative endeavors up his sleeve
Outside his work as an actor, appearing in multiple projects over the years, including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Ross is a multidisciplinary artist. He’s adding the finishing touches on an album and preparing for an art show in London.
“I’ve been working on these two projects for a long time, and I was waiting to get to a place that I really felt confident and was ready to share,” he concluded. “There are things that I love to do, the restaurants that I have, there are things that I love. I’ve been producing some projects, but these two specific things are very close to my heart and personal, and they don’t take a team. It’s more just me, in the sense of it’s a personal thing that I wanted to share, so I’m excited and ready to do that.”