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Andra Day was not quite to the point. Rising “Rise Up” singer-turned-actress questioned her ability to play legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in a biopic directed by Lee Daniels (Precious, Empire). Much of his worry stemmed from the fact that Holiday had already been portrayed so masterfully by Diana Ross (in the Oscar nominated film Lady sings the blues) and Audra McDonald (in the Tony Award-winning musical Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill).
“It was the fear of not being good enough,” Day told Yahoo Entertainment while promoting his new film. The United States vs. Billie Holiday. “Not even just not being good enough, not being an actress. It was huge, and I’m such a fan of Billie Holiday, my worst nightmare was, ‘Oh, we have Billie Holiday, amazing. We have Diana Ross, amazing. We have Audra McDonald on Broadway, amazing. And do you remember that time Andra Day tried to be Billie too? Like it’s shit running through my head. (Day turned out to be good enough: she’s set for the Golden Globe this weekend for Best Actress, Drama, and is attracting Oscar buzz for her power performance.)
“And I didn’t want to redo Lady sings the blues», Continue the day. “Because I’m like, ‘This is perfect. Why would we address this? “
It wouldn’t be a problem either. While these two previous projects took a broader look at the iconic singer’s illustrious but tragic life and career, Daniels’ film – as the title suggests – focused on the US government’s long-running harassment of Holiday. Although the FBI’s interest in Holiday, led by J. Edgar Hoover and executed by Harry J. Anslinger (played by Garrett Hedlund in the film) has been trumpeted in public as a precursor to the war on drugs (Holiday had a well-documented heroin addiction), it is clear that the government sought to silence the singer’s socially urgent music, most notably the song “Strange Fruit,” which drew attention to the lynching of blacks throughout the world. America.
“He was a racist, Harry Anslinger was a racist,” Daniels says frankly. “And I think probably attracted to her in a very sick way. He couldn’t understand that this Beyoncé, Cardi B, Rihanna of this generation, that she had that kind of power over white America. And I think that power, combined with the song “Strange Fruit”, was like a Molotov cocktail. And it had to stop.
“He would do whatever he could to stop it. They tracked her down until she died. They planted drugs on her, they paid boyfriends to keep pumping drugs when she was trying to get rid of drugs. She’s a woman who knew she was a drug addict, who knew she needed help and couldn’t find it anywhere.
The film and its cast contrast Holiday’s harassment by the federal government with white celebrities like Judy Garland, the Wizard of Oz great who had a well-known battle with drug addiction. “White actresses and singers at the time like Judy Garland [was] doing the same thing, if not more, and they closed their eyes, ”says Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays Roslyn, hairstylist and Holiday confidante. “So that lets me know how powerful she was. She had really made an impact then, where Judy Garland, whom the world loves and revere as well, was not a threat.
“We saw the federal government find a reason to attack the black community as a whole,” says Tyler James Williams (Everybody hates Chris, dear white people), who plays renowned saxophonist Lester Young. “We see that with a lot of other artists at the time. [White jazz musician] Stan Getz had a drug problem as bad as Lady, but not as bad as a targeted assault. The federal government has a very bad history with loud, proud black people. We cannot not look at this.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday is currently streaming on Hulu.
– Video produced by Jen Kucsak and John Santo
Watch Evan Ross talk about his family’s connection to the Billie Holiday story:
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