In Lifetime’s Mary J. Blige Presents: Be Happy, healing unfolds quietly, shaped by patience, presence, and perspective, and by a daughter who understands that love sometimes means holding space while someone else finds themselves again.
That daughter, Kayla, is played by Zing Ashford, who breaks down her character’s journey for BOSSIP ahead of the film’s February 7 premiere.
Source: Courtesy of Lifetime
Kayla is pregnant, emotionally intuitive, and deeply attuned to her mother, Val, and her transition into an empty-nest chapter. While Val, played by Tisha Campbell, wrestles with rediscovering who she is outside of motherhood, Kayla becomes the quiet stabilizer of the film, offering tenderness without judgment and guidance without control.
“She had this level of empathy that I think in my own life I was able to learn from,” Ashford told BOSSIP‘s Lauryn Bass about her character. “She was very kind and very careful with her mother, very understanding and gave her a safe space to discover herself, rediscover herself.”
That emotional attentiveness is not incidental. In a story centered on Black women navigating love, identity, and transition at different life stages, Kayla functions as the connective tissue between past and future, daughterhood and motherhood, holding space while carrying life herself.
“Her softness, kindness, and vulnerability really drew me in,” Ashford added.
Stepping Into Pregnancy Without Being A Mother
Although Kayla’s pregnancy is central to the film’s emotional arc, Ashford herself has never been pregnant. Preparing for the role required intention, research, and real-world insight.
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“I do not have any kids of my own. I definitely had to call my sister because I’ve never been pregnant or anything like that,” Ashford shared. “My sister had just given birth to her first baby boy.”
Those conversations shaped how she embodied Kayla’s physical and emotional reality.
“She was just like, ‘You’re tired all the time,’” Ashford recalled. “‘You’re literally fighting through just getting to the next breath.’ So think about that. Think about that heaviness.”
That exhaustion, she said, became a grounding force in how she carried herself on screen, reminding her that pregnancy is not only a visual condition but a constant physical negotiation.
A Daughter Preparing For Motherhood While Hosting Her Own Mother
One of Be Happy’s most resonant dynamics is the parallel transition between Kayla preparing to become a mother and Val learning how to exist outside of that role.
“It was this really beautiful chemistry between us,” Ashford explained. “She was experiencing her children going away, and I was experiencing what it’s going to be like to have children in the first place.”
Rather than framing motherhood as an ending, the film treats it as a continuum, where one woman’s becoming makes room for another’s rediscovery.
“We were both kind of able to tap into what those transitions look like intersectionally,” Ashford said. “I thought that was a really beautiful aspect of how our characters related to one another.”
Working On Set With The Film Crew
That dynamic was strengthened by Ashford’s on-set relationship with Tisha Campbell, who plays Val.
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“She’s not with the whole fan girl stuff,” Ashford said. “The first day we were on set, she just pops her head in my room like, ‘Hey girl, we’re about to have so much fun.’”
Campbell’s approach created emotional safety from the start.
“She would greet me like I was her daughter,” Ashford said. “She made sure I felt safe and like we were equals.”
Ashford also spoke highly of Cameron J. Ross, who wrote the film and also appears in it.
“He wanted to give us the freedom to explore what the character’s life could be outside of what he initially imagined,” she told me. “He trusted us to interpret it in the way that fit our bodies.”
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That kind of trust is rare, especially in a project with big names attached. But Zing said it made the performances more natural. That equality translated directly to their on-screen chemistry.
“So that when it was time to play on screen, it was just very natural and it flowed,” she added.
When The Role Starts Reflecting Your Real Life
As filming progressed, Ashford began to recognize unsettling similarities between Kayla’s journey and her own relationship with her mother.
“I wasn’t quite able to give my own mother the empathy and understanding until I got this part,” she admitted.
The parallels became impossible to ignore.
“Everything about what’s happening here is so similar to what’s happening in my life right now,” she said. “I felt convicted to give her more understanding and empathy in the way that I was communicating with her.”
That realization shifted something fundamental.
“I walked away from this role, changed,” Ashford said. “I’m so grateful that art can inform life in that way.”
Who Zing Ashford Is Beyond Be Happy
Long before Be Happy, Ashford knew performance was her calling. As a child, she memorized lines from Disney Channel shows. As a teenager, she balanced that passion with academic excellence, graduating high school as valedictorian.
“Once I graduated high school valedictorian, I had kind of put all my focus into academics at that point to make my family proud,” she said.
That discipline carried her to Howard University, where she formally trained in theater before moving to New York and beginning her professional career.
“I went to Howard University for theater, and then things kind of snowballed after that,” she said.
Today, Ashford is intentional about the stories she chooses.
“I’m more drawn to stories,” she said. “Stories that mean so much, that matter so much, that educate and also entertain. Being able to combine two of the things that I love the most, which is music, and stories that center around Black family and love and empowerment. I just feel super proud that those are the kinds of stories that I’m being drawn to and that are also being drawn back to me.”
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She also hopes to return to her first love.
“I would love to be in a project where I can show people that I sing,” Ashford said. “That was my first love.”
For Ashford, joining a project executive produced by Mary J. Blige carried weight beyond credit.
“She’s the queen,” Ashford said. “Even if you’re not necessarily a Mary J. Blige fan, you have been influenced by her music in some way.”
The full-circle moment still feels surreal.
“I grew up singing her songs,” she said. “This is a gift of a lifetime for me, and I’ll always, always cherish it.”
At its core, she hopes the film encourages viewers, especially Black women, to grant themselves grace.
“When we love each other and we give each other understanding and space, beautiful things happen,” Ashford said.
Mary J. Blige Presents: Be Happy premieres February 7 on Lifetime.
