Were you nervous about taking on the role? Nervous is the understatement of the century; I was super terrified. I really had to pray a lot about it, but when [director] Lee Daniels explained to me what the movie was actually going to be about, and I read the script and heard his passion for her and for the story, that helped convince me. Why is this a movie that we need right now? As a person of color, I think it’s super important for us and for the nation as a whole. Unless we tell the truth about our history and everyone involved in our history, I don’t think we can ever truly move on and heal. Her story, in particular, is a huge part of that, because she truly was the early godmother of civil rights. How old were you when you were first introduced to Billie’s music? I’m sure I heard her before then, but my actual memory of it is when I was 11 years old and my musical theater instructor, Bill Doyle, told me about her. I listened to three songs, but the two that struck me were “Sugar” and “Strange Fruit.” Would you say this film is more a slice of Billie Holiday’s life than a biopic, since it covers a specific period of time? I would describe it as both. I would describe it as a biopic for Billie Holiday’s life and what she went through and what she was fighting as a Black woman at that time. And then, it’s almost like an action/espionage film. But it was true how they went after her. I would describe it as a biopic for the period, a biopic for the war on drugs, the truth about the war on drugs, and that it was wholly entrenched in race. The war on drugs was really just a guise for a war on people of color, integration and her trying to stop the lynching of Black people in America. It’s a biopic for the time, it’s a biopic for the nation, a biopic for her life. What was it like on set? Interestingly enough, when we were on set, there would be moments that my castmates, Lee Daniels and I would have to pause because we’re dealing with a movie based in the 1940s and the 1950s, and there were still things happening. There were still people of color being lynched, there were still narratives being rewritten and told erroneously. I think you have to go back and really gut these stories and tell the truth about these stories and understand that there were false narratives told and understand why those false narratives were told. I always liken it to having a wound and just trying to put a Band-Aid over it without actually cleaning it out. It just gets worse and festers. Were you concerned about comparisons to the 1972 Diana Ross film about Billie, Lady Sings the Blues? I told Lee, “I love Lady Sings the Blues. I love Diana Ross’ performance in Lady Sings the Blues. I don’t want to remake that. It’s so perfect the way it is.” Then I found out that this would be about her fight and the government going after her and, though she was an addict, ultimately killing her, because that was their goal, right? They said to give her enough rope to hang herself and to wipe out her legacy. To me, it was an opportunity to vindicate her legacy, an opportunity then to work with one of the greatest directors and really having a real trust in this person. And what a cast: Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund, Rob Morgan, Tyler Williams, Natasha [Lyonne], Da’Vine [Joy Randolph] and Miss Lawrence. I worked with a cast that’s superbly talented and really cared about her story. Have you heard from Diana Ross? Actually, she was really supportive. Obviously, her son is in the film. Evan Ross is amazing. They’re really supportive and I remember being blown away. He was like, “She really wants you to do great.” I was like, “What? She knows who I am?” You’re doing your own singing in this. What is your approach toward the music? Are you going for the emotion of it? Are you going for the sound of it? I went for both. I had a superb acting coach and an amazing vocal coach in Tasha Smith and Thom Jones. With Lee, it was like, “We don’t want to do an emulation, we don’t want to copy her, but we want her sound, her feeling, and we want to embody it.” I worked with the two of them to really get into what the emotion of the music was. Obviously, having to pull from my own life, because that’s what I have. Then with the vocal coaching, I’m a singer, so they did mention to me that as a singer sometimes it’s helpful because you’re able to emulate certain sounds. Billie, also, is actually my biggest musical inspiration, so I’ve been listening to her for so long. I’ve played around emulating her voice and singing like her before. But it’s different when you have to embody the emotion too, so it was a lot more challenging. I wanted to sound like her and I wanted to feel like her so that the director would be happy, and it would draw in my co-stars and the audience that watches it. You mentioned listening to “Strange Fruit,” whichprotests the lynching of Black Americans, when you were 11. Isn’t it a little heavy for an 11-year-old? “Strange Fruit” is very heavy for an 11-year-old. I was not fully aware of what she was talking about at the time. At least, I wasn’t aware of the scope of it. I was aware that it was important, I was aware that it directly impacted me, my family and our people, and I was aware that it was important. “Sugar” was one of my favorite songs, actually. It’s a very light song and her voice just floated on it, and it was just so different from the powerhouse Whitney Houstons and Arethas that I had been used to, but it was so identifiable. And then hearing “Strange Fruit,” it was like, “Oh, wow! It’s identity with a really deep purpose.” It helped me to really own my voice and who I am as a singer. Before I was like, “I’ve got to make myself sound like this person or that person.” Really looking at her was like, “Yeah, if she could own herself, I could own myself.” And, to remember to do things with a purpose and to move the needle as far as social change goes and spiritual alteration, I like to say. Does the music also help you to find the character in the acting portion of the role? Absolutely, that was definitely a huge part of it. I think anybody who does have love for music the way musicians do, the way I do, it’s a transcendent thing. I had playlists when I was on set. I had my Billie Holiday celebratory playlist, I had my dark playlist, I had my chemistry. Music drops you into that place. Then, also, I think specifically with her voice, the reason I wanted to do it was because her voice isn’t just her tone or the way she sounds. There’s a lot of her character, her history and her pain in her voice. So without the broken-up-ness of her voice, you’re not hearing all of the trauma and all of the pain and all of the stuff that she’s put herself through with the alcohol and smoking and the drugs and living a very hard life that was thrust upon her. But you hear it. The Billie Holiday story is also in her tone of voice. I think that definitely helped for me to feel. You’ve called doing this film a paradigm shift. Does that mean you plan to do more acting, or are you running back to music? I’m definitely running back to music, but I have a deep interest in making movies and telling stories. It’s so funny, because my co-stars, they would laugh at me, Tyler would laugh his ass off at me right now; he’d be like, “I thought I remember you saying earlier this year you retired.” And I did. I was like, “Yeah, this took everything out of me.” Because it’s heavy. I have such a deep love and respect for actors, and it was just a heavy, heavy, transformative thing to do. At first, I was like, “I think I’m good.” Or, “I’m good, unless it’s this cast of people.” I think I will maybe do a few more and I’m definitely going back to music. We have an album coming out, so I’m excited about that. I definitely want to tell stories, co-writing and co-directing, do some stuff. I think I want to continue this trend of unearthing Black stories and telling them in their entirety, the whole array, the diaspora. With that thought in mind, would you say that your music is purposeful, because you can tell stories through music? I would say it’s purposeful. At least that’s my desire and, I think, that’s what I’ve seen it do with, obviously, “Rise Up” and things like that. It’s purposeful, it’s empirical, it’s an experience. I think that when you’re telling the truth about your experience, it’s something I like to call a testimony. That’s a word of faith. For me, my desire is that if people hear it, they’re healed, because I think that music’s original design is to heal, to be encouraged, or to be inspired. I would hope that my music is purposeful, because that’s my goal at the end of the day. You mentioned you have a new album coming out, but won’t the soundtrack from the film be the next release of your music? Not really. The soundtrack is the Billie Holiday songs that we did for the movie. That’s not necessarily an official release. The soundtrack is a reintroduction for people of Billie’s music. When I think of my album, I think of things that I wrote and created and cultivated. I look at them as two different things, I guess. What will your new album in 2021 sound like? A lot of Billie’s DNA definitely made it onto the album. Also, I’m a big Star Trek fan, so there will be some themes of that on there as well. Basically, dealing with social issues [related to] being a woman of color and where I’m from originally—all told in a creative, Trekkie kind of way. Is there a comparison between you and Billie Holiday? She used her music to make change. And you donated proceeds from your single “Make Your Troubles Go Away” to support victims of COVID-19, which is also a way to use music to make a change. What is the responsibility that you feel that made you do that? It’s two things. I’m a person, and so, for my faith, I feel we are at our highest calling, our highest purpose, some people would say vibrational frequency, when you’re serving. I think that that’s actually what we’re designed to do, is serve each other as people. I always think about the Scripture that’s basically [saying] regard one another as higher than yourself and to serve your brethren. I imagine a world where everyone regards each other as higher than themselves and everyone is taking care of and serving. I think it has to do with my faith, most importantly. And then there’s a bit of pragmatism in there. I’m a person and I have a duty to other people to love and serve and honor them. Again, like I said, I think we’re at our best selves when that’s the position you take. You seem to be a seeker of answers, so what questions are you trying to answer most in your life right now? There are three main questions: Who am I supposed to be in this season? How do I honor God in whatever endeavor it is that I’m doing? And how am I supposed to be used? That’s joy for me. I think a lot of people look at that like, “OK, how do you make yourself happy?” To me, if I’m aligned and I know how I’m supposed to be used, who I’m supposed to be, how I’m supposed to honor God, there’s no greater joy for me than that, honestly.
