Singer/actress Jill Scott has a better understanding of women who stay with abusive partners after portraying James Brown's wife Dee Dee in new biopic Get On Up.

The star reveals her mother was part of a toxic, violent relationship when she was a child, but playing Dee Dee has helped her to understand the mind of an abused wife.

Scott tells Wenn, "My mother was in an abusive relationship early in her life, and she took us away from that. I couldn't quite understand why she stayed, but I have been able to learn some things about that particular kind of woman - the level of love.

"Someone would easily say it's foolishness to stay with someone who is abusive to you. But what I learned about DeeDee is that there is a love that's greater and wider and more powerful than anything I, as yet, understand in this life, and I will always take that with me.

"Do I want to be in an abusive relationship? Of course not! But I would understand better as I go on in this life, absolutely. And Dee Dee still loved James. Period. I think I do, too."