Building Billie
Lee Daniels, director of THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY, on crafting an icon
WHEN LEE DANIELS embarked upon directing The United States Vs. Billie Holiday, he was under no illusions about the task he faced in bringing its central character to life. Here, he tells Empire how he created his version of one of the most iconic singers of all time: Billie Holiday.
THE STORY
As a 13-year-old, Daniels had been blown away by 1972’s Holiday biopic Lady Sings The Blues, starring Diana Ross, as well as the autobiography it was based on. So when he was sent a screenplay by Suzan-lori Parks, he jumped on it. The story followed Holiday’s battle with the authorities, who’d taken issue with her anti-lynching song ‘Strange Fruit’, intent on arresting her for drug offences. “Part of the reason I did this was to make sure that Billie’s truth was finally told, that we exposed what the American government did to her,” says Daniels.
He had the screenplay streamlined, focusing more on the relationship between Holiday and Black FBI agent Jimmy Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes), but also, he wanted to see more of himself in it. As a former addict, and being a queer Black man in the entertainment industry, he related. “It needed a little bit more of me,” he says of the script. “Billie’s realness had affected me in an unconscious way.” This would be a hugely personal film, that intense connection influencing every part of the production.
THE CASTING
Daniels’ manager and agent had been telling Daniels to audition singer Andra Day, but he wasn’t interested: she wasn’t an actor, and he just “didn’t see it. But then I went out to dinner with her and was really smitten. By her shyness. She didn’t really want to do it either.” Day was in thrall to Holiday, and wasn’t convinced she had what it took to make it work. “She genuinely did not want to do this woman a disservice. And I was intrigued by that. So I found myself talking her into the auditioning process, and we then began a journey together that became more about the spirit of Billie Holiday than the craft of acting.”
For her audition, Day displayed a confidence and vulnerability that sealed the deal. “She shocked me,” remembers Daniels. “She stripped, she got naked. And I felt very protective of her in that moment. We were in a hotel room, a bunch of men, the cameraman and the audio guy, and it was so unexpected. She surrendered her soul to me, she committed to me. It was a no-brainer.”
THE VOICE
Day could master Holiday’s raspy quality but neither she nor Daniels wanted a straight impersonation. To help hone it, he hired vocal
coach Thom Jones, who had worked with Nicole Kidman on her southern accent for Daniels’ 2012 drama The Paperboy.
“Thom is a genius,” says Daniels. “With Andra, we calibrated until we got it. At some point she sent me something on the sly, on a voice note, she texted it to me, and again, it was the spirit of Billie. And as a vocalist she understood how to hit the bottom of where Billie lived and breathed and spoke.
I get chills even thinking about it today, how we were all able to capture that. Sometimes it was a little too much Andra, or too much Billie, and we kept calibrating it. It was really a magical experience.”
THE MUSIC
Daniels had Day pre-record the soundtrack before shooting, but things changed when the film’s financing fell through, seeing it delayed by a year. “Which was a blessing for Andra, for her vocal and for her performance. Because she really dug deep into another level, and became who you saw on the screen. And when we went back to the music that we’d recorded, it wasn’t on par with where she was.”
As such, he decided to have her sing most of the songs live on set. “Which drives the producers crazy, because it’s scary, production-wise. But she was in the moment.” Also, acting out some scenes affected her so much that she’d now sing them markedly differently to how she did on the pre-records, particularly in the flashback lynching sequence that explains why ‘Strange Fruit’ was so personal to Holiday. “Andra experienced it so viscerally, a woman hanging from the tree and the kids crying. ‘Strange Fruit’ now meant something different. And she was able to sing it more powerfully.”
THE LOOK
For Daniels, the film’s fashion ran much deeper than getting the looks right. This wasn’t just about a famous jazz singer, but about his own family.
“All of the characters are people that I know,” he explains. “Billie Holiday is not just Billie Holiday. She is my grandmother, who was an alcoholic, and stylish and beautiful and fabulous. She is my cousin, a heroin addict who was vomiting but still also stylish and beautiful and fabulous. So many strong Black women that have been demeaned, debased. Been through it. Through the injustices that America has thrown at them. That is my family there on screen. I know the socks that they’re wearing. I know the shoelaces that are in their shoes. I know their hair. I can smell the grease that’s in their hair. I know the cologne. I know everything about the palette that you can see. It lives in a very real place for me. Everything.”
THE UNITED STATES VS. BILLIE HOLIDAY IS OUT NOW ON DVD AND BLU-RAY