- 2 days ago
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00:00Dear Lord, your gift wasn't my voice, it was my purpose.
00:11Amazing job.
00:12I watched Mahiru twice already.
00:15Yes.
00:17We got it twice?
00:18We got it twice.
00:21So I want to go back to, because I don't know the story of you landing the role.
00:25So tell us about getting the part, auditioning, if you had to.
00:30But how was that?
00:32So when I was preggers, five months pregnant, I decided to do Shakespeare in the Park.
00:39And I played Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing with Kenny Leon directing.
00:43And while we were in rehearsals, we had a break.
00:47And I sat down with him and he was asking me what I wanted to do.
00:52And I was like, I want to play Mahalia Jackson.
00:54I don't know how it's going to get done, but that's what I want to do.
00:56I always like to put what I want to do in the atmosphere.
01:00Yeah.
01:01But to the right ears.
01:03I don't think it's wise to share all your dreams with everybody, but he's someone I trust.
01:08So I told him and he was like, I want to direct it.
01:11And sure enough, like June, in the middle of the pandemic, I'm walking with Freya, who's now born.
01:23And now it's like five months old.
01:25I'm walking with her and he calls me and he's like, Danielle, I need you to play my Mahalia Jackson.
01:32And I thought about it for a little bit and it just made sense.
01:38You know, I absolutely adore Kenny and I think he's a phenomenal director.
01:43And to hear Robin Roberts was attached to it felt really great, you know, because of all of who she is and the legacy that she holds.
01:53And so I felt like I was going to be in good hands.
01:56Yeah.
01:57So I did it.
01:58I said, let's go.
02:00There you go.
02:01Okay.
02:03So what is it about Mahalia?
02:05Like, I mean, I know you're from the South.
02:06I know, you know, Christian family.
02:08Tell us, you know, what it is about Mahalia for you that you wanted to play her.
02:12Yeah, I think I just see myself so much in her, you know, I, like you said, I grew up in the church.
02:20So just having that faith already made it click and just made it feel just so right because we kind of speak the same language, you know, when it comes to spirituality and Christianity.
02:37And so that felt right.
02:39But then I was so curious about who she was because we don't really know that much.
02:48No.
02:48No, I always joke that she probably had a really great publicist back in the day because you can't find no dirt, really.
02:57But we're all human.
02:59And so I was so determined to find what made her human.
03:04And so that's what really drew me, Danielle, as the actor to making this happen.
03:10Once I discovered that she had a hysterectomy and had thyroids and a lot of health issues.
03:17And she was married several times and she owned her own businesses.
03:20And, of course, her voice, you know, she was the queen of gospel music.
03:25How do you get a title like that?
03:27You know, so that's what started to shape the story and definitely got my creative juices flowing to say, yeah, I got to do this.
03:37Yeah.
03:38No, that's so true.
03:39Because I've tried to stop, like, Googling while watching stuff.
03:43But then I was like, I don't know anything about Mahalia Jackson.
03:45And I started to feel bad.
03:47Like, what?
03:47Am I slipping?
03:48What's going on?
03:49Right.
03:50I can't mind it.
03:51So I love, you know, that you brought this to the forefront.
03:55That girl was so much reading.
03:57Oh, man.
03:58There's this book out about her life that literally is probably bigger than a Bible.
04:03And it's really hard to follow.
04:05Whoever wrote it, I'm sorry.
04:07You're kind of all over the place.
04:09But this is really hard to tackle.
04:12So I read that book and listened to radio clips of her on radio shows and watched every YouTube video and every picture and just grabbed as much information as I could.
04:24Yeah.
04:25Was there any aspect of her life you were most surprised to discover?
04:31I think it was the issue of not being able to be a mother.
04:35I just know that's very difficult for women.
04:38And when that opportunity was taken away from her having a hysterectomy, that to me was, I, you know, I became a co-executive producer of the project.
04:51But once they gave me room to share my opinion, that was one of the things I made very clear we have to have.
04:59And we have to tell this story and show the complexity of a woman wanting to be a mother and not having that ability.
05:10Yeah.
05:10You know, so that was important to me.
05:13Now, is this your first executive producer role?
05:16Or have you stepped in those shoes?
05:18No, I did, um, the, uh, did, um, uh, Ain't Too Proud on Broadway.
05:24Okay.
05:25Yes.
05:25It's that, um, but this is my first time in, in film.
05:30Okay.
05:30This is my first time on the screen.
05:32Yeah.
05:33And this is my first time where my voice really is in the room.
05:38Like, like the things, the ideas that I have, my opinions are being heard and being executed.
05:47And, um, really that, that to me has been so much fun is like when, what you, your ideas clicking and making sense and you see them executed and it works.
06:04Yeah.
06:06You're like, okay, I actually know what I'm doing here.
06:09I know a little something.
06:12Absolutely.
06:13Now talk about vocals.
06:15I, you know, it's so good to hear you singing.
06:19This film.
06:19Did you do special training?
06:21You know, who was vocal coach?
06:23Can you tell us about that?
06:23I had no vocal coach.
06:26Um, I sang all of the music.
06:30Uh, I had a great musical director, Matthew Head, who also musical directs P Valley.
06:36So he does a lot of other things as well.
06:39Um, he was wonderful, but we spent a week in Atlanta going over the music and, um, pre-recording just in case we needed it, you know, just to be safe.
06:49But I sang at least 85% of all of the music live, um, in the movie.
06:58Like I sang all of the music, but what you hear, 85% of it is live.
07:04Uh, so as you know, with TV and film, you got to do it over and over and over again.
07:11So I was vocally tired a lot, but it was fun too, because she's so different from me, like vocally.
07:18She's so much more fluid, which was great for me because I've always wanted to be, um, just more melodic in, in my, my own singing and, in my own voice.
07:29And getting to work on her phrasing was a lot of fun.
07:35Um, you know, she never sings anything the same and I don't either.
07:38Like I'm my friend, Jaquina Calakango, who's actually in this.
07:42She plays Mildred.
07:43She's wonderful.
07:44Um, she joked earlier today about how we're very much the same, because if you ask me to choose a note, it might not be the same the second time you ask me to choose a note.
07:55And that was like, she would do that, like she would jump to whatever note she wanted to say in her pen and figure it out.
08:03And I'm kind of the same way.
08:05So, um, it was a lot of similarities, but a lot of discoveries on her.
08:12Now, did you do like vocal rest when you came home at night or what?
08:16Okay.
08:17It actually helped to be tired vocally.
08:20It actually gave me more rasp and added age to my voice to be tired.
08:28Um, that's not normally how one would want to do it, but it worked in my favor.
08:32Okay.
08:33Uh, and so, yeah, I came home to a one-year-old every day, kicking me in the neck at 2.30 in the morning.
08:42If she was asleep.
08:44Yeah.
08:44At the time she wasn't asleep.
08:45And then I had to go to work at 4.35 in the morning and be there until 11 o'clock.
08:51So it was tough.
08:52Yeah.
08:52You know, that, and that was my next question of what it was like, you know, managing motherhood
08:57with being the lead in this project.
08:59Girl.
09:00Like, I just have, as women, we are just a, we are, we are the top dogs.
09:10We really are.
09:11We are queens and goddesses and we, there's nothing that we really cannot do.
09:17And I've, I feel like, you know, God was preparing me when I was doing Orange is the New Black and
09:23Color Purple at the same time for this, because I was like being the mother and being the actor
09:28and the co-executive producer at the same time.
09:31And it wore me out.
09:33It was 23 days straight of work and of memorizing, too.
09:38The script was, we continued to, like, change things to make sure that we were milking this
09:43and making the most out of it as we could.
09:45And then dropping, you know, ideas for the next day while also trying to memorize and
09:51then have my baby girl and, and trying to give her as much as I can give her and her
09:59not on a sleep schedule.
10:01Like, we tried, but it didn't work.
10:03She just was sleeping all the way out.
10:08The minute you get on set, it's like, Danielle, we need to put you in a fitting before you
10:12go to set.
10:12It was just nonstop, but like, I feel like I know for a fact, there was no way I could
10:17have gotten through without God, without faith and without Kenny Leon.
10:22Like, it was just the way.
10:23I love that.
10:24Yeah.
10:25And I wonder, too, with, you know, this coming up in the pandemic, you know, do you feel like
10:30that was right timing or anything?
10:32You know, I'm thinking about just so many actors were like, I don't know when I'm going
10:35to work again, you know, and then him to call and just be like, I want you to play
10:39this, you know, how did it feel for you?
10:40I mean, that was a big fear, too.
10:43But luckily, when we shot in Vancouver, it was the safety precautions were out of this
10:49world.
10:50They were uber safe.
10:52And so much so that's what I felt important for Freya, my daughter, to come with us.
10:57But that was like, I'm going to stay working.
11:00That's one thing.
11:01Like, I don't care if there's a pandemic, I'm going to work as long as it's safe.
11:05But that was the challenge was you, like, how do you do a revival scene when you only
11:14have so many big background actors?
11:16And we searched.
11:18Like, we were like, okay, y'all don't want to give us, y'all don't want to bring in more
11:25American actors, who is already in Vancouver that we can find.
11:32And thank God, Olivia Washington was already out here doing a movie with Daniel Yolowo.
11:37So she was available.
11:39Jason Dearden was already out here.
11:40So we got him.
11:42Jekina, I was like, y'all don't just have to give me her.
11:45So they did.
11:45And then Rob Demery, who plays Martin Luther King, we brought him out, too.
11:49And so we made it work.
11:51And thank God that they were out here.
11:54And they were not only out here, but strong actors.
11:57Like, getting to work with my friends that I've known and trust was really great, too.
12:05So I'm very glad it came together.
12:08Yeah.
12:10How did you feel when you watched it the first time?
12:14I have a very critical eye.
12:17And I watched it, a very rough cut.
12:21Okay.
12:22But I felt like we were in a good place when I first watched it.
12:28And I also was kind of surprised.
12:34Like, because I have a critical eye, sometimes I automatically think things are just way worse
12:41than they appear to be.
12:43And I was like, damn, you sound good, girl.
12:48Like, I had to be like, you ain't this way.
12:51You did this, girl.
12:52You look like her.
12:54I had to take a step back.
12:57Sometimes I can just go for the gut and be like, nope, this is horrible.
13:01And I don't feel that way.
13:03I feel very proud of what we accomplished.
13:05I feel like we had so much to fight against with the pandemic.
13:10We lost our writer who passed away.
13:12Like, the week after I signed on, she had passed away.
13:16So we had to get a new writer on board.
13:19You're fighting with getting people here because of the COVID.
13:24Like, the actual restrictions of getting people here on flights.
13:28And it was just so much to fight against.
13:31But we made a film.
13:32We did it.
13:34And it's something I think we can be proud of and look back on.
13:38And more so than us being proud.
13:40Like, Mahalia being proud.
13:42And, like, leaving more to her legacy is what I'm thankful for.
13:47Yeah.
13:48What do you hope audiences take away from her story when they watch?
13:52You know, I pray that they continue to have faith, you know, and have hope in such a horrible time.
14:04You know, even just thinking about the George Floyd.
14:07Can we call it the George Floyd trial?
14:10Or what do we call it?
14:10Well, here's David Chauvin murder trial.
14:13His murder trial.
14:15You know, it's heavy.
14:17It is heavy on the heart.
14:19But, you know, and so I just want us to know that, like, we shall overcome and we will be okay.
14:25You know, we're going to move up a little higher.
14:28And so those are the things that I hope that people carry with them.
14:33But it's more so for me.
14:36This one is for Mahalia.
14:40Like, I pray when I pass away that I leave something.
14:44You know, it's partially why I wrote Black Woman.
14:48It's because what are you leaving this earth with?
14:51What are you instilling in the next generation of people to come after you?
14:56And I want to be remembered.
14:57I think we all want to be remembered.
14:59Yeah.
14:59So I'm grateful that we get a moment to honor her legacy and what she did for America, what she's done for Black people, what she's done for music, for Black women in music.
15:08Yeah.
15:08We get a moment to say thank you.
15:11And there's so many, Brandy, there's so many women like Ella Fitzgerald or Rosetta Tharp or Eartha Kitts.
15:21You know, there's so, the list could go on, Big Mama Thornton, that have not had their moment.
15:27Yeah.
15:28And so I'm glad this is definitely a beautiful time to get stories like Aretha, to get stories like Billie Holiday and Mahalia right now.
15:39Yeah.
15:40Yeah.
15:40And I really do applaud Lifetime when I think about this film.
15:43I think about Clark Sister.
15:44You know, stories that wouldn't have been on the big screen, but there's a platform now.
15:49Yeah.
15:49And to be honest, like, to me, what I'm learning in this industry is that rock with people who rock with you.
15:59You know, that support you and your vision.
16:04You know, I could have wasted a lot of time.
16:06And I did waste a lot of time waiting for a huge studio to pick this up.
16:12And I'm glad I didn't.
16:15And I'll tell you one thing, Lifetime has had, has just done such a great job of empowering women.
16:22You know, and I talked about it on my Instagram, how everybody from Taraji, Nisi, Queen, Jill, Felicia Rashad,
16:34there's a plethora of women, Angela Bassett, who have done Lifetime movies, who have been successful in them,
16:43who have gotten Emmy nominated from them.
16:46Yeah.
16:46And we love.
16:49Exactly.
16:51So that, I'm excited to come from that.
16:55Let's see for sure.
16:56Let's see for sure.
16:57Let's see.
16:58Let's see.
16:59Let's see.
17:00Let's see.
17:01Let's see.
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17:03Let's see.
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17:12Let's see.
17:13Let's see.
17:14Let's see.
17:15Let's see.
17:16Let's see.
17:17Let's see.
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