Andra Day was not all in from the get-go. The rising “Rise Up” singer-turned-actress doubted her ability to play legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday in a biopic being directed by Lee Daniels (Precious, Empire). Much of her 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-winning musical Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill).
“It was the fear of just not being good enough,” Day tells Yahoo Entertainment while promoting her new film The United States vs. Billie Holiday. “Not even just not being good enough, not being an actress. That was huge, and I’m such a huge Billie Holiday fan that my worst nightmare was, ‘Oh, we have Billie Holiday, amazing. We have Diana Ross, amazing. We have Audra McDonald on Broadway, amazing. And remember that time Andra Day tried to be Billie, too?’ Like that’s the s*** that kept running through my head.” (Turned out Day was good enough: She’s up for the Golden Globe this weekend for Best Actress, Drama and is drawing major Oscar buzz for her powerhouse performance.)
“And I didn’t want to remake Lady Sings the Blues,” Day continues. “Because I’m like, ‘It’s perfect. Why would we approach that?’”
That wouldn’t be an issue, either. Whereas both of those previous projects took broader looks at the illustrious, yet tragic life and career of the iconic singer, Daniels’s film — as its title suggests — zeroed in on the U.S. government’s long harassment of Holiday. Although the FBI’s interest in Holiday, led by J. Edgar Hoover and executed by Harry J. Anslinger (portrayed by Garrett Hedlund in the film) was trumpeted in public as a precursor to the war on drugs (Holiday had a well-documented heroin addiction), it’s clear the government sought to silence the singer’s socially-urgent music, most notably the song “Strange Fruit,” which called attention to the lynching of Black people across America.
“He was a racist, Harry Anslinger was a racist,” Daniels says bluntly. “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 this kind of power over white America. And I think that that power, combined with the song ‘Strange Fruit,’ that was like a Molotov cocktail. And it had to stop.
“He would do everything he could in his power to stop her. They hounded her until she died. They planted drugs on her, they paid off boyfriends to keep pumping her with drugs when she was trying to get off drugs. This is a woman that knew that she was an addict, who knew that she needed help, and couldn’t find it anywhere.”
The film and its cast contrast the feds’ harassment of Holiday with the likes of white celebrities like Judy Garland, the Wizard of Oz great who had a well-known battle with drug abuse. “White actresses and singers at that time like Judy Garland [was] doing the same stuff, if not more, and they turned a blind eye,” says Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays Holiday’s hairdresser and confidant Roslyn. “That then lets me know just how powerful she was. She then truly was making an impact, where Judy Garland, who the world equally loves and reveres, wasn’t a threat.”
“We’ve seen the federal government find any 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 just as big a drug issue as Lady did, but not nearly as much of a targeted assault. The federal government has some very bad history with loud and proud Black people. We can’t not look at that.”
The United States vs. Billie Holiday is curretnly 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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