Janelle Monáe‘s love for Halloween is well known, and it’s one that stems from her childhood. Gracing the cover of The Hollywood Reporter, she credits her mother for her love of the holiday, scary movies and the horror genre.
“I had the type of mom who wouldn’t let us watch nudity in films, but when it came to horror, psychological thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy, she didn’t limit my watching,” Janelle says. “I really thank her because as a kid, it opened my imagination for what I could be and how I saw myself as a creative, as an artist, as a writer.”
“I knew that I wanted to tell stories, and I naturally gravitated to the things that frightened me,” she continued. “I wanted to explore that feeling of, ‘Why am I scared?’ That has continued to this day. I’ve always gone after things that terrify me to conquer them, in a sense. It’s this constant dance I do with the genre and with Halloween specifically. I love that I get a chance to bounce back and forth between what scares me and what intrigues me.”
While she has family members who grew up believing “Halloween is the devil’s holiday,” Janelle shares she has a different view. “Halloween is about creativity, about giving yourself permission to transform into whatever it is your creative mind wants to be,” she shares. “I get to explore the darkest corners of my mind and not hurt anybody.”
It’s also the time when Janelle throws her annual Wondaween party. “Our number one rule is safety first, fun next,” she tells THR of her event. “My great friends like Zoë Kravitz, Channing Tatum, Willow, Chloe Bailey all came last year. They can be in full costume and nobody knows who they are.”
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