Original-Cin Q&A: Golden Globe winner Andra Day talks about drinking, smoking and 'earning' Billie Holiday's voice

Andra Day was scared to death to take on the legend that is Billie Holiday. The celebrated singer had never acted before and initially turned down the opportunity to play Holiday in the new film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday. 

After meeting with director Lee Daniels, and some coaxing, she not only accepted the opportunity to play Holiday but says she put her heart and soul into the role. 

Her hard work paid off with a Best Actress Golden Globe - which now makes her a favourite for an Oscar nomination. 

The United States vs. Billie Holiday is set in 1940s New York City, and focuses on how the federal government targeted Holiday to stop her from singing her controversial ballad “Strange Fruit” (a stark metaphor for lynchings).

Andra Day as Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

Holiday's defiance through music would help usher in the Civil Rights movement.

Our Bonnie Laufer spoke to Andra Day about taking on the role and what initially scared her about playing Billie Holiday. 

CLICK HERE to watch Bonnie’s interview with director Lee Daniels.

CLICK HERE to read Liam Lacey’s review of The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

ORIGINAL-CIN:  As I was watching your incredible performance as Billie Holiday, I was thinking about what you were thinking before taking it on. Either you were ALL in or you weren’t going to do it all? Is that a fair assessment?

 ANDRA DAY: I love you for saying that, because that was exactly what I was thinking.  I could not put it into better words. That’s 100% accurate. I'm here. I have peace about doing it. So whatever it takes, I will do it. 

I know everybody's been saying, oh you started smoking cigarettes, and I know it seems like a big deal, but at the time it felt appropriate. 

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

I wanted to embody Billie, warts and all. So I started drinking and smoking because it needed to happen for me to become her.  I was going to do just about anything I needed to do to get this right and to honor her. So it was literally I’m all in or all out.

O-C:  What scared you the most about embodying Billie Holiday? 

DAY: To be honest, what scared me the most was failing. Probably most Capricorns agree that usually is what scares us the most! (Laughs).  

I think in any way dishonoring her legacy, or being a stain on her legacy, was terrifying for me. Billie Holiday had an extraordinary life. We’ve never been told the true story of her life, but she was the great godmother of Civil Rights. 

Singing Strange Fruit and talking about lynching was bold and brave of her.  The strength of this Black woman doing this on her own, standing up for us just resonated with me.  

Then you have the amazing performance by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues in 1972,  which is a different side of Billie but still brilliant. And there’s Audra McDonald who embodied her on Broadway. So I felt I had a lot to live up to. 

In my mind the thought that terrified me was being compared to those stellar performances, and that I would just mess it up.  I did not want to get it wrong. I love her so much and I wanted to honour her. 

O-C: You are first and foremost a singer, but you changed your voice significantly to sound like Billie. How difficult was that because I got to say you just nailed it. 

DAY: Thank you, that means a lot.  Actually I'm still preferring the way my voice sounds as Billie.(Laughs). It will eventually  go away, but I still prefer my Billie voice, and there will be random moments when it slips in and my mom is quick to point it out!

Getting into the voice of it was really important to me. It just felt like a process of earning her voice.  I mean, not just her singing voice, but her speaking voice as well. She speaks from a higher place, so it was training myself to get there. 

She had this gravel in her tone, so I had to really concentrate on getting that right. Tom Jones, my dialect coach, and Tasha Smith, my acting coach, and  Lee Daniels, my amazing director, really helped with finding my sweet spot. 

“It was finding out what are the key points to focus on. And for me, it was her laugh that got me there.  Most people assume it was the singing that got me into character, but it was her laugh and then her breathing. 

My dialect coach talked about finding out where she breathes from, and why she breathes the way she does. Chasing that breath trains my muscles so that I could speak from this higher place. And then I also damage the gravel, as we call it, trying to grab a little grit in my voice.  

I was smoking like a damn chimney, drinking like a fish, not sleeping, not eating, so that slowed me down and broke things up in a way that actually was really helpful. 

O-C: What did  you learn about yourself after playing “this” side of Billie Holiday?

DAY: There's a Scripture. I happen to be a deeply spiritual person, so that permeates everything that I do personally. One of the things was focusing on the Scripture that says,  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 

I don't think we think about that on a regular basis, but it helped me get through this role.  So ultimately what I learned from this role and from doing this film was that I am capable.  Not just the potential, but I have the capability. And if I believe in the work and give everything I had in me, I can accomplish anything. 

It gave me a picture of our strength as Black women, you know what I mean? She showed me that she was her own woman.  She never let up and never gave in despite all of the negativity around her. 

We saw what Stacey Abrams did in this recent election, and I can speak of my own mother and her survival. And so, it's just a reminder to me to stay strong, be resilient.  

All of these studies have come out saying that Black children are being born with PTSD right in their DNA. It's been like that for a while, but it reminds me that we're also being born with triumph in our DNA from our ancestors. 

So that's what Billie gave me, and what it reminded me of is that it's not trauma. It's triumph that's in my DNA,  resilience and I hope I never lose that.