Speaker 1: I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: from My Heart Radio. Earlier this year, Andred Day won
Speaker 1: a Golden Globe for Best Actress in the Daniels The
Speaker 1: United States Versus Billie Holiday. It's a magnificent acting and
Speaker 1: musical performance. Andre sang all of Billy Holiday's songs in
Speaker 1: the film, including Strange Fruit. Holidays celebrated an unflinching song
Speaker 1: about lynching. The film focuses on the battle waged by
Speaker 1: the Federal Bureau of Narcotics against the jazz singer in
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties and fifties, ostensibly about her heroin addiction,
Speaker 1: but also in an attempt to keep her from performing
Speaker 1: Strange Fruit. Prior to the film, Andred Day was known
Speaker 1: as a singer and performer. The United States Versus Billie
Speaker 1: Holiday is her first feature film. Amazingly, it's a role
Speaker 1: she nearly turned down. I actually had this idea in
Speaker 1: my head that if I did this role, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to be that person like they'd go. Man, Billy
Speaker 1: Holliday is so amazing. Oh wow, Diana Ross and Lady
Speaker 1: Sings The Buzz was amazing. Alja McDonald on Broadway and
Speaker 1: then they'd be like, oh you remember Andrew Day when
Speaker 1: she tried to be I was like, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be that girl. So well, what do you realize?
Speaker 1: I think, and this is my opinion, is when you're
Speaker 1: Will Smith and you're playing Muhammad Ali, what's tough is
Speaker 1: that Ali is one of the great beloved figures in history,
Speaker 1: and so when you play Ali, it's tough because everybody's
Speaker 1: got Ali in the head. Same thing with Billie Holliday
Speaker 1: because she's there and people know the music, but they
Speaker 1: don't really know her. Yeah. Absolutely, you are a young
Speaker 1: actress who's bringing Billy Holliday to people today. So when
Speaker 1: you came and did it, you are stunning in this movie,
Speaker 1: and I mean acting was yes, you can seeing everybody
Speaker 1: knew that you had that card in your hand there,
Speaker 1: But you're so wonderful in this Do you feel like
Speaker 1: you're an actress now? You know what it is like?
Speaker 1: I think I deal like most people obviously to varying degrees.
Speaker 1: I deal with that like imposter syndrome thing, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel more like in this world now. But do
Speaker 1: I feel like I fit yet? What if it was
Speaker 1: a flu? So what's so you're thinking, is this real?
Speaker 1: Is this a fluke? I'm like, go, well, let's see
Speaker 1: you when the Golden Globe for Best Actress, you're nominee
Speaker 1: for an Academy Award for Best Actress. That's one hell
Speaker 1: of a fluke. Boy, are you really fooling everybody? April
Speaker 1: Fools is my favorite holiday so now. But but I'm
Speaker 1: also told that you're dramatically different from Billy Holiday. How
Speaker 1: are you most different from Billie Holiday? I think just
Speaker 1: the way that we manifest pain and trauma, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like, I think the way that shows
Speaker 1: up in our lives, obviously, And though I think everybody
Speaker 1: is sort of an addict in different ways, my list
Speaker 1: does not show up in in addiction, you know, in
Speaker 1: that way, that type of addiction, I guess. But there's
Speaker 1: a lot just even in our behaviors that's completely different.
Speaker 1: You know. The similarities are the fact that we are
Speaker 1: both black women living in America. There will be a
Speaker 1: sisterhood and a kinship in that, you know, naturally, But
Speaker 1: I am very different. I didn't cuss or smoke, or
Speaker 1: drink or do any type of drugs. I was forty
Speaker 1: pounds heavier, so I did have to lose a lot
Speaker 1: of weight. I was also abstinent for like almost seven years.
Speaker 1: That was like spiritual reasons for me. So I you know,
Speaker 1: you've never been married. No, No, never been married. Kids? No,
Speaker 1: no kids. Yeah, I'll never forget when I was doing
Speaker 1: like a test shoot during the casting process with Lee
Speaker 1: and I had to say something like ship or whatever,
Speaker 1: you know, and I was like, oh, what is this ship?
Speaker 1: And He's like, you don't cuss? Do I was like no,
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, you gotta work on that. So I just, yeah,
Speaker 1: smoke cigarettes, started drinking way too much gin. Probably that
Speaker 1: you were abstinent right up to the film. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not that I never drink in my life before. I
Speaker 1: had just stopped drinking like ten years ago, you know,
Speaker 1: because I just I was never really a heavy drinker.
Speaker 1: So it was never really for me even in my
Speaker 1: younger life. But I did start picking it up for
Speaker 1: the film because at least what that did to my
Speaker 1: rain and how it slowed me down because I'm fast
Speaker 1: and billy holidays like molasses slow, real easy, you know,
Speaker 1: So smoking the cigarettes and drinking the alcohol real cigarettes
Speaker 1: on set that they had the herbal cigarettes, but I
Speaker 1: actually started in my life smoking actual cigarettes, but like
Speaker 1: light ones. I tried to find really light cigarettes just
Speaker 1: because my brain is so not used to it. So
Speaker 1: it would really actually slow me down and almost cause
Speaker 1: me to nod in a way that allowed me to
Speaker 1: just focus on the emotion of the scene and being
Speaker 1: present with the person I'm in the scene with, and
Speaker 1: just trying to listen to the director as opposed to like, now,
Speaker 1: be slow. You know, it helped. Honestly, I think if
Speaker 1: it were another character, I might not have had to
Speaker 1: do that. But you are hard pressed to find a
Speaker 1: candid photo of Billy Holiday without a cigarette in her
Speaker 1: hand and a drink either in her hand or nearby,
Speaker 1: Like that woman would wake up and drink a pint
Speaker 1: of gym the way you would wake up and drink coffee.
Speaker 1: I just felt like there's really no way to fully
Speaker 1: do her character justice without somehow immersing myself in that world,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, I'm not going to do
Speaker 1: the heroine, so I'm mine as well make a pop.
Speaker 1: So when you're there and you've never acted before in
Speaker 1: the film, what do you think they chose you for?
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. I think what got Lee was
Speaker 1: that I didn't want the part that I didn't. I
Speaker 1: was really like, did not believe. How did he beat you? Through?
Speaker 1: My manager? It was funny because he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: they want you to do Billy Holliday. Hey. I was like,
Speaker 1: first time on an actor beat this is terrible idea
Speaker 1: through and through, you know. And then he didn't want
Speaker 1: to work with me either, and his managers they just
Speaker 1: lied to us. Basically, it was like, Lee really wants
Speaker 1: to meet you, Angel really wants to meet I was like,
Speaker 1: y'all was so full of ship. Everybody does that exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: But we met and I was like, you know, he
Speaker 1: describes it and I describe it. It's kind of love
Speaker 1: at first sight. Like he could see in me. I
Speaker 1: didn't really have a desire to have the part, but
Speaker 1: I did love her, and I was excited about the
Speaker 1: story and the script and I just wanted to do
Speaker 1: her justice. She deserves that. And I could see in
Speaker 1: him he had a chip on his shoulder about the
Speaker 1: government successfully being able to keep this piece about the
Speaker 1: early war on drugs, her singing strange fruit, her being
Speaker 1: really the great godmother of the reinvigorated civil rights movement.
Speaker 1: He hated that they were able to keep that from him.
Speaker 1: So it was like a vendetta that he had to
Speaker 1: like kind of fulfill to to actually tell her stories.
Speaker 1: So I was intrigued by that. I would imagined that
Speaker 1: popular stars who crossed over from white and black audiences
Speaker 1: like Diana Ross. Diana Ross is an icon of entertainment,
Speaker 1: and when she makes the film, I would imagine, there's
Speaker 1: only so far they want to go about how harsh
Speaker 1: they make that racial reality for her. Did you feel
Speaker 1: that you wanted to do it more? Honestly? Absolutely, I
Speaker 1: actually would venture to say it wasn't so far they
Speaker 1: wanted to go. It was as far as they could go.
Speaker 1: You know. That was two and they were making that film.
Speaker 1: So Harry janns Linger still alive. He had just been
Speaker 1: awarded a Medal of honor, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: We actually we still use Harry janns Lingers blueprint in
Speaker 1: the War on drugs today, you know. So these people
Speaker 1: were still alive, they were still in power. And also
Speaker 1: I think the thing that most people don't know is
Speaker 1: that Billy's husband and when she died, he was awful,
Speaker 1: was played by Billy d Williams, and it was. I
Speaker 1: think it was just a necessary, beautiful black love story.
Speaker 1: But the real Lewis Mackay was the actual technical director
Speaker 1: on the film, so of course he portrays himself as
Speaker 1: this hero and I'm trying to save her from Judge.
Speaker 1: I'm smooth and I'm light skinned, you know what I
Speaker 1: mean all of that, Like only one man could play me. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: the handsomest after in Hollywood right now that's available. Get
Speaker 1: Billy d in here these so interestingly enough, it's like,
Speaker 1: I think, to me, it's an incredible feat that they
Speaker 1: even made that film at all. You know that Berry
Speaker 1: Gordy got involved and made sure to push that forward.
Speaker 1: So but now it was necessary for the world, especially
Speaker 1: as we're having all of well, I would say all
Speaker 1: of them, but some of the conversations we need to
Speaker 1: be having, you know, it's necessary. To me, it's a
Speaker 1: tragedy that when we talk about civil rights and great
Speaker 1: civil rights leaders, we do not mention her name. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean that that they were able to
Speaker 1: successfully spin her narrative into one of just wasted life,
Speaker 1: troubled drug addict, and you wanted to bring that to
Speaker 1: the four that she was a civil rights leader, absolutely.
Speaker 1: We're familiar with protest songs now, but that was not
Speaker 1: a thing when she was singing Strange Fruit, and that
Speaker 1: was probably one of the most just visceral protest songs
Speaker 1: you know about lynching black people in America, they would
Speaker 1: actually we didn't see it in the film, but Billy
Speaker 1: would sing the song and then her band would hustle
Speaker 1: her out of the club because they would actually chase
Speaker 1: her and shoot into her car with the intent to
Speaker 1: kill her multiple times. So, like, we're familiar with protest songs,
Speaker 1: but I don't know what it's like to get on
Speaker 1: stage and sing, rise up and say, if I do
Speaker 1: this song tonight, it will probably be my last night
Speaker 1: on Earth. And that's what she faced every time she
Speaker 1: got up and did that. So she reinvigorated Thurgod Marshall
Speaker 1: along with the death of Himmett too, and the movement.
Speaker 1: I don't think it would look the way it did
Speaker 1: without her emboldening the civil rights leaders that we know of.
Speaker 1: So she definitely deserves her do when it comes to that,
Speaker 1: I think when you think about someone like her, was
Speaker 1: it that awareness, was it that passion for civil rights
Speaker 1: that made her want to numb herself and check out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was all of that. I think it
Speaker 1: was her upbringing. You know, when you think about the
Speaker 1: life that this woman lived. You know, she was raped
Speaker 1: when she was ten, and she was actually sent to
Speaker 1: basically like Prison for Young Girls, which is a reform
Speaker 1: school for girls. You know, she was punished for being
Speaker 1: raped by a forty year old man. She was sent
Speaker 1: into a brothel at a very young age because at
Speaker 1: the time, as she says, in her own worlds, black
Speaker 1: women could only be maids or whores. You know. The
Speaker 1: first time Billy Holliday went to prison, actually she was
Speaker 1: like fourteen or something like that, and it was because
Speaker 1: she wouldn't sleep with one of the clients that came in,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, an older man looking for a
Speaker 1: very young girl, and she wouldn't sleep with him because
Speaker 1: that wasn't usually her clientele. And he was so bitter
Speaker 1: by it that he actually sent the police and sent
Speaker 1: her and her mother to jail. She had a super
Speaker 1: rough upbringing. She lost her father to Jim Crow. Like
Speaker 1: he would have survived, there's no reason he should have died.
Speaker 1: It's just that there was no hospital that would take
Speaker 1: him because he was black. So she saw people taken down.
Speaker 1: She had no family, she had no one, you know.
Speaker 1: And then add to that the fact that she is
Speaker 1: a black queer woman trying to live freely in the thirties,
Speaker 1: forties and fifties, that the entire government's coming after her
Speaker 1: for singing this song, and she knows the truth. I
Speaker 1: think it's also understanding with addicts, and she's not just
Speaker 1: getting high anymore. She's actually trying to get well stave
Speaker 1: off dope sickness on top of all the other cultural
Speaker 1: and personal traumas. So it's actually a pretty incredible feat
Speaker 1: that she was able to do it given all of that.
Speaker 1: You wrote a song Tigress and Tweed I did, yeah,
Speaker 1: which is an updated version of Strange Fruit. Is that
Speaker 1: fair to say? Yeah? Yeah, it's in evolved in involve
Speaker 1: the Strange Fruit and a conversation between you and her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's absolutely a conversation between me and her. So that
Speaker 1: song was really birthed. Actually, so I I Raphael Satig
Speaker 1: actually sent the track. I reached out to him, so
Speaker 1: he sent over this beautiful track. But I struggled to
Speaker 1: write the lyrics and melle for a long time, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I really prayed about it, and that
Speaker 1: it all kind of came pouring out in the first
Speaker 1: thing that was like flip strange fruit, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like flip it. You know. If Billy Holiday
Speaker 1: were alive today, how was she wanted to see strange
Speaker 1: fruit evolved? You know? And I think one of the
Speaker 1: first things that I believe was spoken to me about
Speaker 1: it was take them off the tree, like I don't
Speaker 1: want a tragic story anymore of them. That song is
Speaker 1: safe for people now because we're still hanging on a tree.
Speaker 1: But what about when we're educated, and we have ownership
Speaker 1: and sort of dominion and influence and authority, and are
Speaker 1: armed and are unified and are mobilized. You know, well,
Speaker 1: we're not ready for that fruit. So I I thought
Speaker 1: about the blood of our ancestors not being wasted but
Speaker 1: used as like a fertilizer, right what Billy Holliday gave up.
Speaker 1: And then I thought about the scent of victory. You know,
Speaker 1: you hear that phrase all the time, you know, And
Speaker 1: I thought, well, what does that smell like to us?
Speaker 1: And I thought it would be the scent of our ancestors,
Speaker 1: And so her favorite perfumes later in her life were
Speaker 1: a tweet and tigress, and that's where the title came from.
Speaker 1: So I just wanted it updated. I wanted it for us.
Speaker 1: I wanted it culturally to understand it, and I wanted
Speaker 1: us to see her kind of as like, actually a
Speaker 1: little bit gangster, you know what I mean, because that's
Speaker 1: who she was to me, you know. Actor and singer
Speaker 1: Andrew Day, another musician I spoke with who's known for
Speaker 1: his respect for the musical ancestors, is a mere quest
Speaker 1: Love Thompson, the drummer and frontman for The Roots, now
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon's house band. The Roots had a winding path
Speaker 1: to fame. Something tells me, and I'm not saying this
Speaker 1: to be kind, you could write a number one single
Speaker 1: in the car on the way to the office right
Speaker 1: now when you leave here, and you didn't do that
Speaker 1: because fear. This is what happens. Okay. So when we
Speaker 1: started in the idea of The Roots, we would be
Speaker 1: pegged into alternative hip hop. Now, when we first came out,
Speaker 1: they were like or they asked jazz. It was like basically,
Speaker 1: if you weren't holding your middle finger out to the camera,
Speaker 1: you know, saying singing straight out of Compton. If you
Speaker 1: weren't in way, you weren't the status quo of what
Speaker 1: people perceived to be as hip hop. Here the rest
Speaker 1: of my conversation with quest love that Here's the Thing
Speaker 1: dot org. After the break, andrew Day talks about why
Speaker 1: she found it impossible to relax during the making of
Speaker 1: the United States versus Billy Holiday. I'm Alec Baldwin and
Speaker 1: you were listening to Here's the Thing. When andrew Day
Speaker 1: won her Golden Globe for Best Actress, she burst into
Speaker 1: tears and was consoled by her parents, who were sitting
Speaker 1: on either side of her for the virtual ceremony. I
Speaker 1: was born Seattle, Washington, but like, we moved down to
Speaker 1: California when I was like six months old. So San Diego, Yes,
Speaker 1: Southeast San Diego is where I was raised. Was your
Speaker 1: dad in the military, Yeah he was. He was to
Speaker 1: twenty six years. He was in the Navy. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's why we were stationed in San Diego. And and siblings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have two younger brothers, one older sister. We have
Speaker 1: a full house. And what was music in your life
Speaker 1: when you were a child. Oh, I mean everything is
Speaker 1: the soundtrack to everything that we did when I think
Speaker 1: about music, I always think about like my mom's dance moves.
Speaker 1: She has like this sort of shake bounce dance moves,
Speaker 1: she always says. And then my dad washing the cars
Speaker 1: or cleaning the cars or working on the engines, are
Speaker 1: working on something out in the yard, and we'd sing together,
Speaker 1: you know, he loved jazz, and then singing Stevie together,
Speaker 1: singing Luther together. But Billie Holiday, my introduction to her
Speaker 1: was actually, I know I heard her when I was young,
Speaker 1: but my real memory of her is when my musical
Speaker 1: theater instructor at the school I was going to introduced
Speaker 1: me to her when I was like eleven years old,
Speaker 1: and he gave me two singers. He said, you need
Speaker 1: to listen to Billy Holiday. You need to listen to
Speaker 1: Janis Joplin. I was like, okay, le fut out perfect?
Speaker 1: And when did you first get up in front of people?
Speaker 1: And most of the guests we've had on this show
Speaker 1: who are musicians and singers, especially vocalists, have talked about
Speaker 1: the choir or some choruses were some of the beginnings.
Speaker 1: Is that true for you as well? Yeah? I think
Speaker 1: it was, Well, I guess because I was inquired when
Speaker 1: I was in high school, but before that, I was
Speaker 1: like at the church we went to, it was more
Speaker 1: like a praise band. But yeah, so I think probably
Speaker 1: the first time I got up and sang in front
Speaker 1: of people was maybe like twelve twelve or thirteen because
Speaker 1: musical theater, and then I was singing in church as
Speaker 1: well too, and then choire at school. So I think
Speaker 1: that's I knew I could sing when I was about six,
Speaker 1: but really in front of people and other than my family,
Speaker 1: seeing if it was not a fluke. That was like
Speaker 1: around that age when people were starting to say, oh,
Speaker 1: you can actually do this. Were you confident in music,
Speaker 1: like like right away up in front of people singing,
Speaker 1: and then later on recording music where you confident in
Speaker 1: a way that you weren't about acting. This sounds so
Speaker 1: weird to say, and I and I think I need
Speaker 1: to excavate this more and like actually understand it. But
Speaker 1: I knew that I could sing, but I did not
Speaker 1: like the tone of my own voice. I think in
Speaker 1: the very beginning I wasn't fully confident in it because
Speaker 1: I wanted it to sound like Whitney and I wanted
Speaker 1: it to sound like I. Still I still would like that,
Speaker 1: so I still love that shower trying to hit that
Speaker 1: Wetney Man exactly hasn't gone away at all. Then the
Speaker 1: singers of the time too, you know, like they was
Speaker 1: listening to Destiny's Child at that time, and then like
Speaker 1: Lauren Hill. So I was like, god, I want to
Speaker 1: sound like them. But it was actually Billie Holiday, which
Speaker 1: is why I think I have such a special connection
Speaker 1: with her. Bill Doyle was my musical theater instructor, and
Speaker 1: he said, listen to her. So I heard a song
Speaker 1: called Sugar, and then the next one was Strange Fruit.
Speaker 1: But Sugar like shook me, you know, because she sounded
Speaker 1: so different. I'm like, this is the greatest jazz singer,
Speaker 1: Like this is the mother of jazz. Her tone is
Speaker 1: so different, like she's not It didn't sound like a rething,
Speaker 1: it didn't sound like Whitney. But I was so transfixed.
Speaker 1: I was enamored. Like her voice, you know what it
Speaker 1: feels like like almost like a rickety roller coaster that
Speaker 1: never falls off the tracks. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like you're almost waiting exactly exactly it was her, But
Speaker 1: you grew up singing and you felt confidencing and it
Speaker 1: just was natural, that all kind of evolved in a
Speaker 1: very very natural way. Yeah, yeah, that definitely. And so
Speaker 1: the very first day, now you've obviously had prepped and
Speaker 1: there's wardrobe fittings, and you're around people on talk talk talk,
Speaker 1: I mean, when you're doing a really serious role and
Speaker 1: you're working with a serious group of people. I mean,
Speaker 1: Daniels is a really heavy duty director. And then the
Speaker 1: first day of shooting, how do you feel the first shooting?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, the first day of shooting. I literally
Speaker 1: thought my heart was going to Like I thought, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have a heart attack, Like I couldn't stop it.
Speaker 1: And I was also like email, what though I had
Speaker 1: made up in my mind, I said, it's fine, They're
Speaker 1: going to discover today that I'm terrible, and they'll have
Speaker 1: plenty of time to like find an actress that can
Speaker 1: come into it. So I was nervous. I was almost
Speaker 1: like I had resigned, you know what I'm saying, Like
Speaker 1: it was just like complete resignation, Like that's fine, They're
Speaker 1: totally going to realize this is I'm here to take
Speaker 1: the crew pretty much exactly. And I think it was
Speaker 1: it was like bizarre because I mean, he was nervous
Speaker 1: to Lee was terrified. He didn't know if I could
Speaker 1: do it, but he just he was in and he
Speaker 1: was he believed it. But you know, it's different when
Speaker 1: you're on the first day. And so my first day
Speaker 1: of shooting, I was so grateful that it was actually
Speaker 1: with Natasha Leone, who was just like it was amazing
Speaker 1: to be able to watch her work. And so we
Speaker 1: do the first scene and so Lee comes up to
Speaker 1: us and I guess to give us notes, but in
Speaker 1: my mind, I was like, great. I looking at Miriam,
Speaker 1: who is my assistant on said I was like, let's
Speaker 1: just make sure we're ready to go, like when they
Speaker 1: kick us out. And so he comes up and he
Speaker 1: starts giving notes, you know, and he's telling Natasha something,
Speaker 1: and then he's telling me something in Bobla and he's
Speaker 1: like believe that was great, and then he like takes
Speaker 1: off and I was like, so I do it was
Speaker 1: so like, wait a minute, am I still in the game.
Speaker 1: Like it was a really really crazy feeling, like and
Speaker 1: so you know, because I'm kind of looking at him
Speaker 1: for more, like do you need more and more notes? More? No,
Speaker 1: that was perfect. One of the worst places you can
Speaker 1: be in a film. It seems it's not true, but
Speaker 1: it just seems to echo. This way is when you
Speaker 1: think the director is happy with what you're doing and
Speaker 1: he just he just floats on yeah exactly, gives all
Speaker 1: these notes all these people and he's like, okay, you
Speaker 1: you're great now, Roger, Yeah, I want to do this
Speaker 1: and come in here. Then you sit there and you
Speaker 1: pick up the drinking Wendy hold that line, and everyone's
Speaker 1: getting over your notes and they give you nothing, and
Speaker 1: you feel like a minute act. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: do you want me? Don't change anything, don't change anything.
Speaker 1: And I was like, so in my mind it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe he's happy. And then I was like, nah, he's
Speaker 1: probably just like let's just get through the scene so
Speaker 1: we can get the like literally, and I will tell
Speaker 1: you people like when did you get comfortable? I'm like,
Speaker 1: I know this sounds insane. Never never ever ever, I
Speaker 1: think every day I got to set was like this
Speaker 1: anxiety of like today's the day that I'm out, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So you know, it's like just
Speaker 1: operating off of pure adrenaline for like three and a
Speaker 1: half month straight. That's basically what it was. There's a click.
Speaker 1: That's the old Tennessee Williams line. That's what Brick says.
Speaker 1: He says, I'm not going to stop drinking, Maggie, because
Speaker 1: I haven't felt that click yet. And there was there
Speaker 1: a click for you when you went I got it,
Speaker 1: got it, I'm Billie Holiday. Now. This is really interesting
Speaker 1: because I realized, because it's my first film, I don't
Speaker 1: know what that feels like yet. So that was the
Speaker 1: thing where I was like, I don't have like a
Speaker 1: frame of reference of when I got it, So I
Speaker 1: literally truly had to rely on Lead, which is first
Speaker 1: of all, it is great because he is an incredible directory.
Speaker 1: But I think the only moment was like maybe the
Speaker 1: first time we were in wardrobe. It wasn't like I
Speaker 1: looked in the mirror. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I look just like her now and it's great. It
Speaker 1: just felt like the clothes and the environment caught up
Speaker 1: to my mind. If that does that make sense, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Like, well, I think that there
Speaker 1: are externals that can help you. Yeah, you know, if
Speaker 1: you put the wrong jacket on me, I can still
Speaker 1: probably give the performance, hopefully, But if you put the
Speaker 1: right jacket on me, We're going to get there quicker, right,
Speaker 1: exactly exactly. I'm usually somebody who I'm like a day
Speaker 1: three person. Yeah, day one, Day one, I literally stand
Speaker 1: there in front of a camera. No matter how many
Speaker 1: movies I've done, I literally go on my trailer, I
Speaker 1: look at myself in the mirror, and I go, I
Speaker 1: forgot what to do. I hate that feeling because that's
Speaker 1: the thing that I'm like, I don't think I've like
Speaker 1: reconciled that yet. But it's funny because that's my acting coaches,
Speaker 1: Like she taught me this like twelve Stepdean, you know,
Speaker 1: and she's like, you have to just trust that it's there.
Speaker 1: Just trust that it's there. So that was like the
Speaker 1: hardest thing for me. I was like, oh, I don't
Speaker 1: like that feeling of like you just did all this work,
Speaker 1: and like then as soon as you get in front
Speaker 1: of camera, you get nervous. You're like, where did it go?
Speaker 1: Day one, I go, I forgot what to do? Do?
Speaker 1: I go, I remember what to do? And then by
Speaker 1: day three I'm like, I got it. I think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say ice skating. I'm like, I don't think I
Speaker 1: got it again now, so I'm assuming because I'm not
Speaker 1: a musician. Did you lay down all the music tracks first,
Speaker 1: and then your lip sync on stage? We actually did both.
Speaker 1: We laid down the music in August before we flew
Speaker 1: out there with salam REMI how many songs did you record?
Speaker 1: I think like fifteen or sixteen songs. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: I guess Lee had seen so we did it and
Speaker 1: he was super happy with the pre recorded music. But
Speaker 1: the music in the movie, some of it is the
Speaker 1: pre record and some of the songs are actual live takes.
Speaker 1: So like obviously Strange Fruit was live, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it was maybe God Bless the Child. I think
Speaker 1: that was live because Lee said he realized that, Okay,
Speaker 1: we I think we're going to get something more magical
Speaker 1: in the performance if we actually record live. So some
Speaker 1: it's it's actually a balance of like live songs and
Speaker 1: then some prerecorded And as a singer, there was an
Speaker 1: exchange that happens with you and your audience that's live
Speaker 1: that with prerecorded music, it will never be the same.
Speaker 1: You can kind of get close, but it will never
Speaker 1: be the same. There's something that happens when the audience
Speaker 1: experiences you and you experience their reaction to it. That is,
Speaker 1: it's a spiritual thing, you know, And so he he
Speaker 1: actually did a couple of them live for for that
Speaker 1: reason in the headspace, so I was really happy with that.
Speaker 1: I guess it's also hard, maybe I would guess because
Speaker 1: I don't really know, but to lip sync becomes something
Speaker 1: that's not acting, because there's a self consciousness that you're
Speaker 1: staying with as opposed to all of a sudden, something
Speaker 1: comes up inside you when you go I want to
Speaker 1: go that way, and if you're lip syncing, there's no
Speaker 1: room for your change. Yeah, yeah, exactly, because even the
Speaker 1: songs that we would lip sync, I'd still actually sing
Speaker 1: just because I needed to actually feel it because my
Speaker 1: face will not make the same face. But it's still
Speaker 1: is difficult because I'm locked into what I did before,
Speaker 1: whereas someone like myself and Billie Holiday musically, her freeform phrasing,
Speaker 1: the fact that she would never return to the same
Speaker 1: way that she sung something is a part of the performance.
Speaker 1: So it's it's difficult too because now I'm in lockstep
Speaker 1: with what we prerecorded, and it's like I don't have
Speaker 1: the freedom to look at an audience member and let
Speaker 1: them sway how it is I deliver that next line,
Speaker 1: so it's it's um. It was a little more challenging
Speaker 1: and away. So I'm glad we did some of them
Speaker 1: live because I think we got some more interesting things,
Speaker 1: you know, for those parts. Obviously, we're in this surge
Speaker 1: of change in this country in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: in terms of diversity, racism, and I'm wondering what was
Speaker 1: your civil rights consciousness before you made this and where
Speaker 1: you always involved in causes related to this when I
Speaker 1: became sort of of age right, and actually, interestingly enough,
Speaker 1: Billie Holiday was it was a big sort of lighthouse
Speaker 1: kind of into that world. And then just like studying,
Speaker 1: just like Harlem Renaissance, you know, the poetry of Linkston
Speaker 1: use and through art and which is why it's such
Speaker 1: a powerful vessel, is sort of how I became aware
Speaker 1: of everything I was not aware of or meant to
Speaker 1: be aware of, if that makes sense. You know. Actually
Speaker 1: the first time I sang strange fruit was for the
Speaker 1: Equal Justice Initiative. Brian Stephenson, he was a guest on
Speaker 1: our show. Yeah, oh god, he is so so brilliant,
Speaker 1: like a real, actual modern day hero, and so I
Speaker 1: learned so much just from him and being able to
Speaker 1: speak with him, especially when he talks about the narrative
Speaker 1: war with regard to race, you know, because I think
Speaker 1: people often go, well, you know, we won the Civil War,
Speaker 1: but the truth of the matter is, first of all,
Speaker 1: we didn't even know we were free until like two
Speaker 1: years later, you know, and just says, if you lose
Speaker 1: the narrative war, that's what we lost. And that's why
Speaker 1: things like racial terror were allowed to persist. That's why
Speaker 1: most people don't know that these monuments to Confederate leaders
Speaker 1: right too. And these streets in these schools, in these cities,
Speaker 1: they were all named actually you know, during like segregation,
Speaker 1: during Jim Crow. They were erected later, right, for intimidation.
Speaker 1: For this is so I've definitely known since I was
Speaker 1: a young adult. Is when I started to study and realize, like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, my textbooks didn't actually teach me the truth
Speaker 1: about slavery. They didn't teach me the truth about reconstruction,
Speaker 1: about segregation, about Jim Crow, about mass incarceration, about the
Speaker 1: war on drugs. When I was young growing up, it
Speaker 1: was that Abraham Lincoln, solely by himself, freed the slaves.
Speaker 1: So I didn't learn how Abraham Lincoln actually felt about
Speaker 1: black people or slavery. I didn't learn about I'd be wells,
Speaker 1: you know until later, or the hand that black people
Speaker 1: had in their own liberation and their own freedom, you know,
Speaker 1: and so or learning about incredible freedom fighters that were criminalized,
Speaker 1: like Angela Davis and like Asada Shakur when we talk
Speaker 1: about great civil rights leaders and that's your next movie, listen.
Speaker 1: I received that, Actually, I received that whisper. I was like,
Speaker 1: if somebody asked me the other day, They're like, really,
Speaker 1: think about who you would want to play, and I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, yeah, it's definitely Angela. But I want
Speaker 1: to know what were some of your experiences in terms
Speaker 1: of prejudice racism, because down there behind the Orange Curtain there,
Speaker 1: which I know, I mean maybe on a military base,
Speaker 1: it's a little more racially integrated, but but that area
Speaker 1: is not known as a racially mixed community. No. No,
Speaker 1: first of all, I'm glad you know that, because I
Speaker 1: think most people don't. I think most people think that
Speaker 1: San Diego is more like Los Angeles, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's more like the outskirts of Los Angeles, those sort
Speaker 1: of flips. It's very interesting and So I grew up
Speaker 1: in Southeast San Diego, which we always say we grew
Speaker 1: up mainly around like black Mexican, Filipino people, Samoan people.
Speaker 1: So I think most people when they go down to
Speaker 1: San Diego, they're like, wow, we don't really see color
Speaker 1: like that. You know. I love my city. I love
Speaker 1: people that raised me, particularly Southeast where I grew up,
Speaker 1: But it is a city that I think is not
Speaker 1: as progressive as people think. And there's certain areas in
Speaker 1: particular that are really rough. There's like one area that
Speaker 1: we joke about that we call clant What is that
Speaker 1: it's actually Sante in San Diego, and it is a
Speaker 1: place that you still see Confederate flags and it is
Speaker 1: still you know. Actually I went to a school called
Speaker 1: Valencia Park, but all of my other siblings went to
Speaker 1: Robert Elie Elementary School, and this is smack in the
Speaker 1: middle of like the black community of San Diego, and
Speaker 1: so most of those students were black or were Latino
Speaker 1: and spoke Spanish. And they just recently changed it a
Speaker 1: few years ago because of the amazing councilwoman Letting and Gonzalez.
Speaker 1: But I think in general, just dealing with the idea
Speaker 1: that I was other, you know what I mean, or
Speaker 1: maybe friends parents that didn't live in my neighborhood. That
Speaker 1: I didn't find out un till later that they said
Speaker 1: my mom would always tell me that she would lock
Speaker 1: her things up when you came over to the house.
Speaker 1: And I was like wow, like you know, like why
Speaker 1: is that? And it was like did she do that
Speaker 1: with all your friends? And she was like no, just you,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess because she thought I was poor
Speaker 1: or whatever. I was like, all right, cool. And then
Speaker 1: I also felt always from my father a pride in
Speaker 1: being who we are, you know what I'm saying, a
Speaker 1: pride and being black. My mother had her own experience, right,
Speaker 1: She was mixed, you know, her mother's white, her her father,
Speaker 1: my grandfather, was black, and so she had a rough
Speaker 1: experience as well too, where they were really poor and
Speaker 1: they couldn't get food assistants, right because our kids were mixed.
Speaker 1: So they both my parents have different experiences with racism.
Speaker 1: But my father also had his experiences with his mother
Speaker 1: and father about being proud about being black and his
Speaker 1: culture and who he is, and he instilled that in
Speaker 1: us as well too. So it's it's both of those things.
Speaker 1: I always like to say, I said, you know, I
Speaker 1: know that we hear about how we've been born with
Speaker 1: PTSD in our DNA now, but I like to also
Speaker 1: think that we have the triumph right and the strength
Speaker 1: and the resilience of our ancestors in our DNA as
Speaker 1: well too. But you know, it's it's having conversations like these,
Speaker 1: and it's actually telling stories like you know, Billie Holidays
Speaker 1: or Angela Davis, or like Fred Hampton's or Asta Shakur,
Speaker 1: or I go back to say, you know, I wonder
Speaker 1: what would happen if America knew that a slave was
Speaker 1: hugely responsible for netting us are very independents as a nation,
Speaker 1: you know. Or during the Depression, you know that Carver
Speaker 1: didn't just make peanut butter, but he actually saved the
Speaker 1: American economy, you know, Or as Hidden Figures showed us
Speaker 1: that three black women their math was largely responsive for
Speaker 1: forgetting us to space or programming the first computer. So
Speaker 1: it's like, we need to know the truth about the struggle,
Speaker 1: the truth about the contribution, and the truth about the
Speaker 1: triumph so that we can actually have a real conversation
Speaker 1: about not just how black people struggle, but how they contributed.
Speaker 1: Do you think that African American people, black people in
Speaker 1: this country, do you think that the idea of integration
Speaker 1: is quaint to them? I think it's just like, you know,
Speaker 1: what integration should be is just a natural offshoot of
Speaker 1: actual equality, like actual you know, seeing not mothering people
Speaker 1: all the time. You know what I'm saying, the way
Speaker 1: we always have to do the things that we don't
Speaker 1: understand people of other cultures or the l g B
Speaker 1: t Q plus community, it's the not other ring all
Speaker 1: the time. I think it's just generally saying like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to know the truth. I want to walk
Speaker 1: in the truth about my history, about other people's history,
Speaker 1: I want to know the truth about this nation. And
Speaker 1: I think that integration just become is a normal byproduct
Speaker 1: of that. How they wanted integrated audiences and absolutely absolutely
Speaker 1: why do you think there was Again, it goes back
Speaker 1: to like seeing that we are not different, our difference
Speaker 1: should be celebrated. I think our differences are what make
Speaker 1: us one or what makes us the same. For her,
Speaker 1: she just she had a very mentality in in the
Speaker 1: nineties and fifties of just why does different have to
Speaker 1: be bad? Actor? And singer Andrew Day. When We Come Back,
Speaker 1: Andrew talks about her song rise Up. It's become an
Speaker 1: anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement. Follow Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. While you're there, leave us
Speaker 1: a review. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. You're broken down, that entire living life on
Speaker 1: the Merry go Round. You can't find out, fight out,
Speaker 1: but I see it in you. So we're gonna log
Speaker 1: it out, Mountay, We're gonna log it out and move on.
Speaker 1: Day all eyes like the day, our eyes, our eyes afraid.
Speaker 1: Andrew Day wrote this song rise Up, for her first album,
Speaker 1: Cheers from the Fall, in two thousand and fifteen. Both
Speaker 1: the album and this song received Grammy nominations for Andrew.
Speaker 1: Rise Up helped to start new conversations out her art
Speaker 1: and her sense of herself as an activist. I sang
Speaker 1: rise Up, which is a song I wrote a few
Speaker 1: years ago, and it was adopted by the Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter movement, which was probably my greatest honor With the song,
Speaker 1: the Obama's had become singing it at the White house.
Speaker 1: I've had people literally looking me in the face and
Speaker 1: said I was going to kill myself until I listened
Speaker 1: to rise up. Like stuff like that makes you go like,
Speaker 1: WHOA I love. I was speaking to somebody the other
Speaker 1: day that was said they were doing this thing where
Speaker 1: they're asking the question instead of what's wrong with you,
Speaker 1: the question is what happened to you? Like what are
Speaker 1: you going through? And so we did this song for
Speaker 1: the inauguration. It was just amazing. See the young figure
Speaker 1: skater Caitlin Saunders just I don't even know she realized
Speaker 1: is how impactful her just being a young black girl
Speaker 1: and being free and loving figure skating in a realm
Speaker 1: that we're not always represented in. How much that just
Speaker 1: makes me go like this is why we do what
Speaker 1: we do, you know. And to see Kamala Harris, you know, elected,
Speaker 1: to to hear about Joe Biden talk about supporting people
Speaker 1: who didn't support him, I just feel like, regardless of
Speaker 1: how people feel, those are the conversations we need to
Speaker 1: be having right now. You know, Like it sounds so simple,
Speaker 1: but I was like taking my cousin's shopping the other
Speaker 1: day and I bought all of these dude's sweaters, so
Speaker 1: it just moved from Jersey and me his brother, I think,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to get their business off the ground.
Speaker 1: But the message was so simple. It said, God bless
Speaker 1: anybody who's ever hated on me, And I was like,
Speaker 1: I love that. Like to me, I think we just
Speaker 1: need more of those conversations of a lot letting offense
Speaker 1: necessarily rule our world, but actually being constructive and intentional
Speaker 1: about kindness. And I think that that's what we're hopefully
Speaker 1: beginning to see. And that's why I think that the
Speaker 1: inauguration was really impacted me like that because it just
Speaker 1: felt like we could finally breathe, and it was I
Speaker 1: won't mention unmentionables, but it just felt like finally after
Speaker 1: it just felt like finally after four years of just
Speaker 1: like pain. Yeah, no one felt that pain as richly
Speaker 1: as I did. Trust me, thank you for every Saturday
Speaker 1: night I went to hell he came back again. Also,
Speaker 1: can I just thank you on behalf of everybody for
Speaker 1: biting the bullet for us and doing that for us,
Speaker 1: because it was actually magical, So thank you for that sacrifice.
Speaker 1: I also like to be clear about this sort of misconception.
Speaker 1: One of the things that people would say to me,
Speaker 1: and it's naively, you know, just so, isn't this so crazy?
Speaker 1: With Trump in office? I mean, America literally has an
Speaker 1: openly racist president, and I'm like, well, America's had mostly
Speaker 1: openly racist presidents, So it's I think this just brought
Speaker 1: it into the awareness of other people who had a
Speaker 1: matter of a Yeah. Also, it just made people who
Speaker 1: hadn't had to pay attention before, maybe didn't care, really
Speaker 1: had to pay attention. Tell me quickly, Stevie Wonders ex
Speaker 1: wife had a role in your career. How did that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: her and Stevie kay Miller Morris is her name. I
Speaker 1: love her so much. She was like my godmother in
Speaker 1: the business. But there was somebody I was working with
Speaker 1: years ago. He was like this producer manager, and I
Speaker 1: don't I don't like talking negatively about people, so I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just say God bless him. But but the one
Speaker 1: good thing that came out of that situation was I
Speaker 1: was just singing in a strip mall in Malibu, right
Speaker 1: right where where are you singing in the parking lot where? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just like this little common area where you
Speaker 1: just sitting there some chairs and stuff. It was like
Speaker 1: just this little strip mall and Malibu and the shoes started.
Speaker 1: So I was just saying and uh, and so he
Speaker 1: I guess he filmed it, and then he found himself,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe a week a couple of weeks later,
Speaker 1: in a pastry shop with this woman kaymer Lett Morris,
Speaker 1: and he played it for her and she was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I really like her voice. And that's when she revealed
Speaker 1: that she was Stevie's wife at the time, and so
Speaker 1: she played it for Stevie, who liked the way I sounded,
Speaker 1: and so they orchestrated a call and I would say,
Speaker 1: like it was honestly, that's what it felt like, and
Speaker 1: it felt like the weirdest because I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: it's so crazy. I don't wonder where Stevie's talking to
Speaker 1: me from, because he has no idea that I'm in
Speaker 1: a tiny studio apartment behind a seven eleven, next to
Speaker 1: a dumpster, sing in front of the shoestore anymore. I
Speaker 1: beg of you now. I want to just say this.
Speaker 1: I know people don't really in their careers. We go
Speaker 1: day by day and then all of a sudden, this
Speaker 1: miracle happens. Where your talent intersects with an opportunity, and
Speaker 1: you've got so many opportunities ahead of you work wise,
Speaker 1: I mean, to do have this be your first film
Speaker 1: that's really really really rare to hit the ball out
Speaker 1: of the park like that. I mean, do you feel
Speaker 1: excited about the future? Oh? Absolutely, yeah, I still scared.
Speaker 1: I mean, okay, listen, Okay, I'm excited about the future.
Speaker 1: But God yes, And you know, it's so funny. I
Speaker 1: do like a round table with all these just amazing
Speaker 1: actresses that I'm like, whoa, I grew up watching them.
Speaker 1: It's so crazy, you know. And so I was like
Speaker 1: just wondering about like when that kind of fear goes away,
Speaker 1: and Michelle fIF was like never. I was like, oh damn, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's like the whole time you just feel that way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, but it does feel you. I
Speaker 1: was saying, Okay, you know, maybe I don't wanted to
Speaker 1: like I'm excited about the future, and I think it's
Speaker 1: a blessing. That's my my spiritual compare life, just how
Speaker 1: God has expanded the platform with Billy Holliday, this new
Speaker 1: family I have in Lee in in my cast, Like
Speaker 1: I talked to these people every day. We are family
Speaker 1: and we're going to stay that way. And then I'm
Speaker 1: happy for the extended family in your guys community that
Speaker 1: has embraced me in such a way. So it makes
Speaker 1: me excited because I have really a really specific desire
Speaker 1: to tell Black stories that haven't been told before, stories
Speaker 1: of Black celebrations and stories of black struggle and trump
Speaker 1: the ones though that have been intentionally hid and like
Speaker 1: Fred Hamptons like, yeah, there's so much and this idea
Speaker 1: that I hear that well, there's not really needy roles
Speaker 1: for black people, especially black women. I go, well, then
Speaker 1: we just haven't tapped it correctly, because the stories are there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Sarah Bartman, You know I've
Speaker 1: of course read Oh toa Bango, right, you know I
Speaker 1: I I keep hearing now about a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear about black paint. I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear about black stroke. And I totally under
Speaker 1: and I think we need that world. But I think
Speaker 1: we need both because if there was such a concerted
Speaker 1: effort to keep these stories from coming to the surface,
Speaker 1: then we absolutely, I think need to make more of
Speaker 1: an effort to make sure that these stories are actually told,
Speaker 1: you know, so that we can actually get a full picture.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited that the platform seems to have opened
Speaker 1: up in a way that will hopefully allow me to
Speaker 1: dive in and start to tell more of these stories.
Speaker 1: I must say in all honestly, I've rarely been as
Speaker 1: excited to see what someone does next as I am
Speaker 1: to see what you do next. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of people feel that way. This has been a great Yeah,
Speaker 1: stay stay fearful, stay scared. I'm dropped in the fear.
Speaker 1: Thank you for doing this. Thank God, bless you for
Speaker 1: all this work you're doing, and all how thoughtful you've
Speaker 1: been about all of this. Your instincts got you where
Speaker 1: you are now. Don't betray those instincts. Cool, Then we're
Speaker 1: going to work together next. Give me one day. Do
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. You do you name it.
Speaker 1: I'll be either well, my best to you, my love
Speaker 1: to you. If I don't see you playing, Angela Davis,
Speaker 1: I'm calling the Hollywood police. Thank you as a blessing.
Speaker 1: Talk to you, singer and Golden Globe winner and a day.
Speaker 1: I'm like Baldwin and this is here's the thing from
Speaker 1: my heart radio, rise like the riser, in spite of
Speaker 1: the A. I will ride a thousand times again and
Speaker 1: will rise, I like the ways will rise. It's right
Speaker 1: on the A and we'll do it a thousand times again.
Speaker 1: He call O. Heel heel t mm hmmm.