To get used to the fat suit, she wore it out in public. "A lot of people would not look at me. There was a girl who had Golden [the lead single from Beautifully Human] as a ringtone. I said, 'I love your ringtone,' and she said, 'Thanks,' but she didn't even look at me. She saw the weight, the size, and didn't bother to even notice." By contrast, Mma Ramotswe is "who I'd like to be when I grow up, a beautiful, wonderful, powerful woman who has a grace about her. I loved playing her. Her first name is Precious! Come on! And I had to gain weight - I am the luckiest girl in Hollywood to be able to gain weight!"
Scott cherishes the fact that during her divorce she was able to spend time in Africa. "Ah! It was my first time. It was ... I don't know the word, honestly. Just being there helped me see how people are supposed to be, the level of dignity, of respect with which they treat each other, regardless of whether you live in a shack or a mansion. [Now] when I meet people I curtsey, because I did it for three months and it felt as normal as rain."
If there's any doubt left that Scott is more than equal to whatever comes her way, it's erased when she tells me an extraordinary story. At a recent string of shows at the House of Blues on LA's Sunset Boulevard, Scott was raw, funny, incendiary and brilliantly exhausting. After the last show, both Prince and Stevie Wonder came to her dressing room, and she and Prince - "the dancer of life!" - danced into the small hours. Then she was alone, "waiting outside for the valet to bring the car round, and these ... I say kids, but they must have been 25, looking wealthy, five-o'clock-in-the-morning wasted. And this guy's saying, 'Step back nigger, step back nigger.' He's saying it like it's a song, but there's nobody out there but me. I was taken aback, and I said, 'Excuse me?!' And he said, 'Shut your mouth and don't say a word when a white man is talking!'"
"I'm not kidding! I started laughing, and I followed him and his cohorts through the parking lot laughing hysterically, and they became more and more uncomfortable. It was one of the best moments of outrageous laughter I've had. To think for one moment I could possibly fit into that box. Do you understand what I just did tonight? I am so far from that word that it is funny. They looked so uncomfortable; I wanted to emasculate him, to make sure he was getting no nookie that night. The girls sobered up and were looking scared. It was something else - the first time in my life I've been called that. Wow. But I enjoyed it. You must fight back, it's imperative. I like the fight in me now."
The Real Thing: Words & Sounds Vol 3 is out now on Hidden Beach.
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