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00:00Miss Philly Holladay!
00:03What's it like to be a colored woman?
00:09Anytime somebody colored is doing something right, they paint us out wrong.
00:15She's made something of herself and you can't take it.
00:18They want me to stop singing what's in my soul.
00:21But if I don't sing it, who will?
00:30Hi, I'm Mikayla Angela Davis here with Hulu's
00:42The United States vs. Billie Holiday's
00:45Breakout, Breakthrough, Golden Globe, winning star, sister, sister.
00:54Sister friends.
00:56Sister, Andra Day, sister.
01:00I feel like all the ancestors from the cotton field to the cotton club are standing up and just like giving you a standing ovation.
01:12It's like I can feel it.
01:13Like you, you did something really special.
01:19Like really special.
01:21I definitely feel that, especially being here with Essence because, I mean, Essence really supported, was the very first, you know what I mean?
01:28A group to support from the beginning, before the movie, before, you know, we even really officially had a release, you know?
01:36So it just feels, and also this movie is, this movie is a movie about a black woman.
01:41It is for black women.
01:42It is for black women.
01:43You know, it's just like to be seen.
01:44That's right.
01:45And I think that's, I mean, that's what God does.
01:48That's what Billie's spirit does, you know what I mean?
01:50Is to break through, break out of boxes.
01:54Is to make us seen and to, you know, and to show us as just these heroes.
01:58I'm so great to Tali, to Tasha, to Tom, my cast.
02:02I mean, I'm so grateful to everybody, SLP, Johan Hari.
02:05It's like, I don't know.
02:07I can't really take that credit, you know, because they really, her and Billie, you know, they just, they poured into me in such a powerful way.
02:15And that's really where I was so taken when you said that you called Billie in, right?
02:24I was thinking, you know, I feel like in a way you've been forecasting this even before Billie, before Lee.
02:31I mean, looking at your fashion and your hairstyles, like you would do that little pompadour.
02:36You were giving us retro glamour.
02:38You were, you were like, you were playing with time in the way that you presented yourself.
02:44And then you also, I mean, Rise Up is a anthem.
02:48You know, it's not, it's not as directly an anti-lynching song, but it was a political anthem.
02:56Do you feel like you were walking towards Billie before this moment or Billie was walking towards you?
03:03Well, interestingly enough, I'll put it like this.
03:06I guess hindsight is 20-20.
03:08You know what I mean?
03:09Because it's not like I was thinking about it then or planning on it.
03:12I didn't even want to do a movie, let alone this movie.
03:15And I didn't actually, if you would have asked me back then, you know, would you ever want to play Billie Holiday?
03:19I would have said no, you know, because I love her too much.
03:21I care about her legacy and it just feels very on the nose.
03:24Why would I?
03:25You know what I mean?
03:26It's like, oh, I'm a singer playing the singer, you know.
03:29So I would never have guessed that.
03:32Also, I love her, you know what I mean?
03:35And I didn't want to remake Lady Sings the Blues because I love Diana, you know, and I love her portrayal in Lady Sings the Blues and just, you know, what they accomplished.
03:43But I also know as a fan of Billie that it's not fully, the full picture of how the government went after her, that piece had to be left out for safety reasons, you know.
03:50But, and most people didn't know.
03:53So it, I don't know.
03:54Yeah.
03:55I've now looking back, I feel like, huh, maybe it was always a meant to be kind of thing just because of how everything fell into place and the people that were involved, you know, and the spirit that they had, you know, that brought this to life.
04:06So, Nate, yeah, maybe a little preordained.
04:09You now fill out this trio of divas that have, you know, brought Billie to different generations.
04:17And you were going to be what Miss Ross was, maybe to us, to a whole new generation.
04:23And it wasn't, it was a different lens.
04:25It was a different story.
04:27So all three of these stories of Billie can stand together, you know, like a great girl group, you know what I mean?
04:35Like you brought in the right story at the right time.
04:40Yeah.
04:41And that's, that's, you know, SLP, Johan Hari, Susan Laurie Parks, that's their brilliance, you know.
04:45And I feel the same way, you know, Billie was so layered and so multifaceted.
04:50The reality is there could be 20, 50 more iterations of her that would be accurate and that would honor her.
04:56That's right.
04:57And honestly, her legacy deserves that.
04:59There should be, because that's, you know, it was just, you know, me and Tyler, my co-star and I,
05:04we would laugh about it because we were like, you could really tell the story of Billie Holiday for a very, very long time.
05:09As he says, he was like, it was just every day was just filled with epic shit.
05:12That's what he would say.
05:14And we realized, like, with her, you know, she, it was, I mean, and it wasn't like she was trying to be.
05:20It just, she, she wanted to live free.
05:22She wanted to be black, a queer woman living free and speaking up for what is right and speaking up for her people and trying to do that as, as that woman in the 30s, 40s and 50s.
05:32I mean, that's what created such an explosive life, you know.
05:35Yes.
05:36And, you know, when you talk about her, imagining her, and I want to talk about your process, but also what you just said, she, she wanted to be free.
05:47She was fluid.
05:48She was an artist.
05:50She was an activist.
05:51And there was no movement around her.
05:53There was no civil rights movement yet.
05:56There was no movement for black lives.
05:58She was out there on her own, you know, like black women are layered, you know, by virtue of who they are.
06:06But to think of her in that time alone, she seemed very vulnerable.
06:12And I feel like there was a, you brought that, like you brought this, it was a combination of just sheer strength, but also really, she was out there, unsupported, vulnerable, and a genius artist.
06:28I mean, I think the society still has a hard time dealing with black women genius.
06:32Yes.
06:33Yes.
06:34How did you prepare?
06:35And I know this is, there's layers to this too, right?
06:38Like, there's such a physical part of it, you know, and embodying a glamour icon, because she was, she was probably one of the first, most glamorous black women, and how she was beloved in Europe for her style.
06:52And then straight to junkie, right, like that, that arc of physicality, the musicality, and the spirituality.
07:01Like there was a lot, it was layered, and you, you bodied it.
07:08You know, like, talk a little bit about your process.
07:10Yeah, no, and I'm so glad you kind of like opened it like that too, because it was layered, you know, sometimes it's hard to talk about the process, because you're just in it and going through the motions without realizing how many layers there are to it, you know, and that's, so with her, you can't just, you know, I'm, there's a study, I guess, if you wanted to say studying being a black woman, but I am a black woman.
07:34I live the study, you know what I mean, not, I'm not at that time different.
07:37Yes, I am a black woman and I so there are an inherent set of right unrealistic expectations that we have to constantly fight against.
07:46Almost an inherent sense of invisibility, you know, that we have to sort of be, you know, overcome and make ourselves seen and show, hey, we are valuable and, you know, which is why we are so resilient, even in times where I believe we shouldn't have to be what we are.
08:01You know, so, so there's, there's, there's that, you know, I, Lee actually connected me with, well, him and I first had just amazing conversations, rich conversations about, you know, what Billy should be from his perspective, from my perspective, you know, what story we wanted to tell not who she should be, but what we wanted to bring to light.
08:20And, and, and so he connected me with Tasha Smith, who was my amazing acting coach and, you know, I'm a researcher so I'm a, I'm a right Capricorn, I'm just like I need all the information, I'm a typical like I need all of it, you know, and she really helped me to say okay, all of that is beautiful research but we have got to fill that with a human being, you know what I mean.
08:38And so just digging up familial trauma, digging up and examining, you know, on a macro, how I feel, right, living in society, how I feel looking at Billy as a black woman living in society, and then things that were more primal and more visceral, you know what I mean, because sometimes those things are very, they become, unfortunately, because we're very desensitized to certain things, they become cerebral, you know what I mean.
09:04And so dealing with familial trauma as well too, dealing with my nerves and with my terror of doing this movie, using all of that to inform the character as Billy would have been terrified walking on stage to sing Strange Fruit, you know, so.
09:19That's right.
09:19And then sitting with understanding addiction, right, understanding it really truly as an illness, it is a mental illness and it is based in trauma, you know, and that's, you know, people always want to be like what's wrong with you, but it's like, you know, what happened that you had.
09:34Yes, that this has to soothe that for you and so, and then so sat with addicts, I sat with former addicts, and just helped me to understand the soul in it and the soul behind it, you know, the need, what would make you separate relationships and do these things and, and then the physicality, obviously tying off above the muscle, you know, how you would, where the knot hits and taking off this nylon and so all that stuff.
10:03Also, I don't smoke or drink or cuss or even have sex.
10:08I've been abstinent for almost seven years now.
10:11So it's a different lifestyle.
10:13So I just started cussing.
10:14I started just being more sexual in my behavior, buying lingerie and shit like that because Billy would have, you know, and I started smoking a lot of cigarettes and I started drinking a lot of gin.
10:26And I actually remember the first time Tasha and I, we were rehearsing and Tasha was so nervous.
10:33She was like, uh, are you sure you want to do this?
10:35I was like, yeah, yeah, I got it.
10:36Give me, give me a cigarette.
10:37She was like, oh God, I don't know if we should do this.
10:39You know, I was like, I want to, it's my choice.
10:42I want to do it.
10:42Okay.
10:42And then, uh, then I was like, got, we got some vodka and I was, she was like, I don't know, you know, and, but I did it.
10:49And it was so funny because that first day I threw up like five times, but you know, to me, I just felt like there was, you are hard pressed to find a candid photo of Billie Holiday without a cigarette in her hand or a drink.
11:03That's, it's her, it is her and to me, I don't think I could really honor her legacy without those things.
11:09You know what I mean?
11:10Maybe, but as far as for this experience, that's what it was.
11:13So, and then losing weight.
11:15And I'm so glad you did because we believed you, you know what I mean?
11:19Because you can tell when someone's acting like they're smoking.
11:24Yes.
11:24Yeah.
11:25Yeah.
11:25I just want to give like a little nod to Tasha Smith because again, like we're lining up all the black
11:33women that were part of that.
11:35And sometimes you don't know what sisters are behind you supporting you.
11:41And I just, I have a personal thing where Tasha helped me out with something very important too.
11:46And, and I think particularly in this, you know, we're in the Essence house that we, we lift up, you know, all the sisters that are helping us get to these places.
11:58And when you get there, all the sisters that are just proud, isn't the right word.
12:03I don't like you, you just did something very, very special for us in a way that I think it's going to be revealed as we continue to watch this.
12:14Because again, you brought a truth and a complication and a, and a badassness to Billy that we had never seen before.
12:24Like she was the jump off for the civil rights movement.
12:28And this song was, it was not, even though it's a beautifully crafted song, it wasn't oblique in any way.
12:37It wasn't sublime.
12:38It was so straightforward, probably even more.
12:42I mean, there are a lot of protest songs, right?
12:43There's a lot of civil rights songs, but this one is visceral and visible.
12:49And the courage that it took to deliver that song, like it, did you, because I feel like I had to re-enter Strange Fruit in a whole new way because of your performance.
13:03Wow.
13:04What about you and that song?
13:05I've been a fan of her since I was 11.
13:07So I'm aware of the song.
13:08I've been aware of it and how important it is and, and the lyrics.
13:12But I don't think I realized that the song is not a beautiful song until I played Billie Holiday.
13:17That was the first time.
13:19Every other time it's been an homage.
13:20I love the song.
13:21I think it's so powerful.
13:22It's so strong.
13:23I want to honor Billie.
13:24I want to honor her legacy.
13:25You know, we did it for the Equal Justice Initiative for Bryan Stevenson.
13:29I pre-sang it before we got to the movie set in the studio with Salaam Remy.
13:33But it wasn't until I was on set and I was looking those people in the face as Billie, because I, you know, those, those worlds are still very much blurred in my mind and in my spirit.
13:45But on set, it was an urgency that I never had before.
13:50You know, with Rise Up, people, they're, you know, different, but they're both protests.
13:54I don't know what it's like to get on stage and to say, if I sing Rise Up tonight, this will likely be my last night on earth.
14:00You know what I mean?
14:01And so that was a real thing for her.
14:03They would shoot into her car when she would leave clubs with the intention to kill her.
14:07You know, they were not subtle with their attack.
14:10You know what I mean?
14:10They were diabolically genius when it came to it, but they were not subtle in their attack of her and this song.
14:18So it was on set.
14:20It was an urgency.
14:21It was an urgency I had never had and I never felt before.
14:23I needed everybody in that audience to stop enjoying the song.
14:28It would make me mad when people would be like, oh, why are you clapping for bulging eyes and twisted mouth?
14:34Why are you clapping for blood on the leaves, blood at the root?
14:37Why are you clapping for black bodies hanging from the poplar trees?
14:40Why are you clapping?
14:41This song is as if I'm looking you in the face and saying, get up.
14:46They're killing people right now.
14:47You have to go do something.
14:48So it was an urgency that I felt on set that I had never felt before when I was singing that song.
14:53And that was the first time I realized this is not beautiful.
14:57This is a horrible song.
14:58You know what I mean?
14:59And that was, I think, a part of what sat that scene, you know, the way that it caused that scene to sit the way that it did and the way that Lee shot it, you know, right in the eyes.
15:10That was the, I think you could see that.
15:13Maybe that's what made it, you know.
15:15Yeah.
15:16I mean, it was so confrontational.
15:18Like the video of the murder of George Floyd.
15:22You know what I mean?
15:23I mean, like it's, I think part of the power is because she has such a beautiful vessel that you are able to be removed from the message.
15:36But you made it real for us and the way, like you said, the way that Lee set it up.
15:42There was no, there was nowhere to, you know, there was no escaping it.
15:46I mean, I remember reading about when For Color Girls was on Broadway and how Ntozake and a lot of the cast had to go to the Caribbean, I think it was Jamaica, to kind of undo the characters.
16:00And I remember once being on the subway and Jeffrey Wright was on the subway in character on the way to the theater.
16:07And I feel like I felt like that watching you.
16:11Is Billy still with you?
16:12Did you have to do some kind of release from her or that character?
16:20Because when you said that you were singing it as Billy and seeing it as Billy, I totally believe, like, I don't see that it happened any other way.
16:29And so to have that presence so clearly with you, did you have to do any kind of spiritual work or mental or emotional?
16:40Yes, I did. And to be honest with you, no, she is not.
16:45She's not fully gone.
16:47There's listen, the reality is there are parts of her that will never leave.
16:50Right. There are parts of me being brought into this role that actually needed to happen so it could color this next season of my life, you know, and turn me into who it is I'm supposed to be in this new season to evolve me into, you know, who I believe, whatever God wants me to be in this season.
17:07But I'm not 100 percent sure. You know, the one thing I will tell you that is like sort of gotten me or kind of kept me clear or grounded is just prayer, prayer in my spiritual.
17:18I consider myself a deeply spiritual person and my relationship with God has reminded me the one thing that I believe that he keeps reminding me is that you who am I, who am I, who am I, you know, and he keeps saying you are beloved and you are a lover and you are a lover of men.
17:34You know what I mean? And so just remember that and everything else will fall into place the way it's supposed to.
17:40But I did, you know, Lee actually, I think they all sort of saw, I guess, what I hadn't seen going into it, that it would affect me kind of more deeply than I had prepared for.
17:53And so we actually sent him on vacation, which was very nice of him after the shooting of the movie.
17:58But I realized I'm like a different place is not going to get this out because I came home and I still was really, really rocked by just the normalcy of everything.
18:07That alone took me a while. I just felt like he's my new family. You know what I mean?
18:12And then the production is my new family. Trey's my new family. Dave Vine, Miss Lawrence, Tyler, you know, Tone, Rob, Garrett, Natasha, you know, like these people.
18:26Evan, they're my new family, you know, and so and then everything we had thrown into such urgent situations every day.
18:34So when it came back to coming home, everything just felt very safe and very normal. And and it was I don't I don't know.
18:42I was weird maneuvering in a normal world as her, you know, because we had all this all throughout 2020.
18:48So it's three years to be another person. And I realize, you know, that definitely has an effect.
18:54I mean, even now, I just feel like there's certain behaviors and certain shit that I'm engaging in that I'm like, what am I doing?
19:01You know what I mean? Like, I just am like, but then there are some things that I go, wow, I'm so glad she's in there because I would not have had the courage to face that before Billy.
19:10You know what I mean? And so so we're still me and me and Miss Eleanor.
19:15We still up here navigating and God is great. But the prayer is definitely what kind of has gotten me to a more balanced place.
19:22Because, as I said, you know, God is great. So that's I believe I fully believe in the power of prayer.
19:29Do you think that you that Billy has opened up an activism in you? Do you feel like more like an activist or more like a human?
19:40You know, just a human. That's the real thing. And, you know, so people ask me that all the time.
19:44I love to see. And this is this is why I love you. OK, OK, like, you know, it was because people ask me that about Billy's activism or my activism.
19:53And I'm like, or as an artist, do you feel like you have more responsibility to an activist?
19:58And I'm like, well, I guess, yeah, but not because I'm an artist or not because of this role.
20:03And I'm a human being. You know what I mean? I'm a human.
20:05And like, yeah, I think generally people know they just aren't willing to accept it.
20:10You know what I mean? Like and some people don't. But, you know, you see people being treated wrong.
20:15You see people you see inequality, you know, among the races, among the genders.
20:19You see people treated differently because their sexual orientation.
20:23You see, you know, because of the community, the people that they represent, you know, it's every we view a lot of things.
20:30We forget how much, especially here in America, we view through the lens of white, straight patriarchy.
20:38You know what I'm saying? Male patriarchy. And I feel like even ourselves, you know what I mean?
20:44It's such a narrow lens. And so really what she did, she made me just show up, you know what I mean?
20:49And be more present. Like, OK, I parse words a little more as myself, I guess, maybe before, but she doesn't as much, you know, and that that's something that I'm grateful for.
20:59But, yeah, it's just you're a human being. I feel like whether I'm here, whether I'm telling this story, another story, whether I'm from another nation, it's like I'm human.
21:08And you want to, you know, you want to see people treated right. You want to see them done right.
21:12You know, and that's if that's activism. Cool. I'm cool with it.
21:15You know, but it's just I feel like we're here and our design is servants and we're servants to each other.
21:23You know what I'm saying? And I think that's and I think one of the most beautiful things about this particular Billy movie is that her humanity, the complexity of her humanity was really illuminated.
21:36And, you know, I say this all the time. I think black women are an on ramp into humanity, like meaning the way that we have to move throughout the world.
21:46Like you said, our country is pretty much structured for white, heterosexual, Christian, male success.
21:52And anyone outside of that is could be killed. And they did. I mean, she was hunted.
21:59She was prey. She was hunted. And again, without a movement.
22:05And the fact like that's girl. Yeah.
22:09When she's in a hospital bed and you start laughing.
22:14And you don't give up when he did like you were the only one that wasn't a punk in that room or Billy.
22:21And that was even. Even though you knew that she was near the end, there was like this sense of humanity, but it was complicated.
22:32It wasn't pretty. It was. And that and I know for me, I just long to see more images of black women that where our humanity is allowed.
22:41That we're allowed to be messy and fabulous and smart and scared and all of those things.
22:48And it is all these complexities.
22:52Yeah. Yeah.
22:53About the fashion, though, if I can get superficial for a second, because, you know, I'm a fashion girl first.
23:00And so you are.
23:02But, you know, because it's because it's information.
23:05And again, Billie Holiday, I mean, we didn't know so much about Josephine Baker in the United States as Billie.
23:14And Billie Holiday was probably the first, as I said earlier, preeminent, glamorous black woman that was known throughout the world.
23:24Just talk to me just about the fashion in general, because you were you were serving every scene.
23:30Thank you. Thank you.
23:31That was that was I mean, the brilliant work, obviously, a product of Lee Daniels of Paolo Niedu.
23:37I mean, I just there is so few people you meet of a work ethic the way he does.
23:43I mean, he would work so hard over clothes.
23:46And if something didn't make it into a scene, something as small as a cufflink on an extra, he would cry.
23:50Like it was so everything mattered.
23:52He worked so hard.
23:53And we had such rich text conversations because I am a fan of period.
23:57I am. So I do know a lot about it.
23:58I am a fan of her.
23:59Yes. And one of the things that we talked about in the beginning was like Billie Holiday did not dress the way.
24:05And I say housewife, not as a derogatory term, but in the 40s and 50s, that was sort of the typical.
24:10That's right.
24:10For fact. Right.
24:11So she was she did not.
24:14So something might be period.
24:16It might be accurate to the period, but inaccurate to Billie Holiday.
24:19And to remember that we're dealing with a global superstar.
24:22Right.
24:23Cow and neck sweaters were not a thing until the 70s.
24:25But Billie Holiday was wearing them in the 50s.
24:27You know what I mean?
24:27Like she was really one of, you know, one of the first to be seen with one on.
24:31That was like a thing, you know.
24:32So, you know, so it was understanding that it wasn't just someone who just wore clothes.
24:38You know, this was someone who was a superstar.
24:41And then Prada told me, so Lee told me in the beginning that Prada was going to do the dresses.
24:45I was so excited.
24:46I wish they could have done more, but they did a good bulk of them.
24:49And it was just amazing seeing these because they were period, not period pieces.
24:54You know what I mean?
24:55That's right.
24:56Yeah.
24:57That's right.
24:57And they did a beautiful job.
24:59And all of them with wardrobe, with Paolo, with the costume design, set design.
25:03They did an incredible job.
25:04Hair, makeup, amazing.
25:06God rest Charles Gregory and Stacey Merriman on my hair as well, too.
25:12You know, they did a beautiful job of taking these periods and stringing them all together
25:18without making you feel like you're out of it.
25:20You know, sometimes it can be kind of like, oh, that's a little too modern.
25:23It pulls you out.
25:24Yes.
25:24You'll feel just sort of engulfed in this world, but there's something that feels modern about
25:30it that grabs you.
25:31And so, and the other part of it was understanding that Billie's fashion was also a part of her
25:36activism.
25:37You know, I think we go, oh my God, I love this, you know, for a coat, not as much obviously
25:43anymore, but back then, yes, that is what they wore for the coat.
25:46We go, God, that's a beautiful coat.
25:47We go, oh, those are beautiful earrings.
25:49We want to wear them.
25:49We want to buy them.
25:50We da, da, da, da, da.
25:51And for the most part, we have the freedom to buy them, except some places you will still
25:56get turned away from, obviously.
25:58But so we don't realize that, you know, as much as they would write articles about Billie's
26:03fashion and how great it was, wow, these shoes, we've never seen them before, you know, the
26:08other part of it was they would write similar things that would say, how dare this black
26:11woman be in a fur coat?
26:12How dare she be wearing diamonds?
26:14How dare, you know, likening her to a monkey or to an ape, you know, or an animal, some type
26:19of baboon walking around in a fur.
26:21So we forget they were challenging her on that as well, too.
26:25They didn't want her wearing fancy dresses.
26:26They didn't want her wearing diamonds.
26:28They didn't want her wearing anything that white women in their lives would wear.
26:31And so her choice to wear those and to say, I don't want to be nobody's damn maid, that's
26:36a part of her message, you know?
26:37And so there's so much power in not just her glamour and how she looked and how she was
26:43this sort of icon of fashion.
26:46And, and, but it was also, it was a statement, you know what I mean?
26:49To say, and I can live in these spaces, you know what I mean?
26:52So it was, it's beautiful top down to be working on this set.
26:55Oh my God.
26:56Yeah.
26:57I mean, it, and that's the other thing that was so, I felt so that this film did, was
27:02she wearing things that were considered luxury?
27:05She was trend setting.
27:06So not only are you black woman wearing things that you shouldn't even be able to try on
27:11in a store, but you're doing, you're, you have more swag than any of us, you know?
27:17You're so that white women, how they should dress.
27:20That's, they ain't like that shit.
27:23Yeah.
27:24They will be having none of that.
27:26And I loved at the end of during the end credits where you're dancing and you're like,
27:30this is Prada.
27:31Watch out.
27:32It was so cute.
27:33And I love the, like, they didn't make Prada back then.
27:36I'm like, shut up.
27:37That was Lee.
27:38Lee had his, and he was like, shut up.
27:39And walked off.
27:40It was fabulous.
27:42It was so good.
27:43Because you were, you were in the period, but it was also exciting you in a fashion now
27:49moment.
27:50And that's what this film did too.
27:51Like, I didn't leave the story, but I was excited.
27:55I didn't feel like I was looking at costumes, you know?
27:58So that's a very sublime, that's a very delicate balance, you know?
28:04And you all did it perfectly.
28:06It had a huge part of it.
28:08Yes.
28:09Yeah.
28:10I mean, because you're right.
28:11It was part of her genius.
28:12She understood her visual, the presentation in a very, in a genius way.
28:20Yeah.
28:20I want to ask you a little bit about legacy.
28:22Because as I said earlier, you're now part of this pantheon of Billie holidays, right?
28:29Yes.
28:30I love that.
28:31She must have, do you know what I mean, to do what he did.
28:37And we needed to hear, we needed to hear a strange fruit today.
28:40Like I said, George Floyd is, the trial has begun.
28:44We're still dealing with lynching right now.
28:46Like this is, this is the case of our generation, is a lynching case.
28:53So for this song and this movie and this moment to come out now, it's like, I feel like there's
28:59all kinds of orchestration going on on the other side.
29:03How do you feel you fit in the legacy?
29:09How's that sitting with you?
29:10Do you feel that yet?
29:11Are you still like, you know, in the moment?
29:14Her story was intentionally, like a lot of Black narratives, a lot of Black influential
29:19narratives, was intentionally suppressed and was twisted.
29:23You know what I mean?
29:24And so you were never supposed to know that her singing strange fruit in defiance of the
29:28government, her integrating audiences, one of the first artists to integrate, not the
29:32first, but one of the first.
29:33That's right.
29:33To integrate Carnegie Hall.
29:34That's right.
29:36This reinvigorated Thurgood Marshall and the movement, along with the death of Emmett Till.
29:40So we forget she's not only in there with them, she's at the genesis, you know what
29:44I mean, of the civil rights movement as we know it today, you know?
29:48And so, I mean, I just feel, first of all, I feel gratitude.
29:53Here's the main words I can use.
29:55Gratitude.
29:55I feel purpose.
29:56I feel aligned, if that makes sense.
29:58You know what I mean?
29:58Because even had I not done this movie, this matters to me.
30:02You know what I mean?
30:02I am a Black woman, and as you see, we shoulder so many people's burdens.
30:06I liken Billie Holiday to, you know, what Stacey Abrams did in Georgia, and Black women,
30:14you know, queer communities, gender fluid communities, what they did in Georgia to flip.
30:19I mean, that was a gargantuan effort, you know?
30:21But that is what Black women are made of.
30:23And so I do feel like-
30:25That's what we do.
30:26Yeah, it is.
30:27It really is what we do, and I just feel like, and oftentimes unseen and uncelebrated.
30:33What I, with this, you know, I don't know if it's settled in yet.
30:37All I know is just, I want to see more.
30:40I'm so desperate to see more celebration of each other, you know?
30:44Because I don't think we realize, and even of Black men, because that's part of what I
30:48love that the movies show.
30:49That's a conversation that we as Black women aren't allowed to have oftentimes, is that
30:53those things that sometimes we encounter from even our Black men.
30:57But I want to talk about all of this, so that way we can go, great.
31:00These are all plantation behaviors, you know what I'm saying?
31:03These are all transatlantic behaviors, you know?
31:06These are things that have been inherited.
31:08These are things that have been ingrained in us.
31:10PTSD is in our DNA now, like, so I want us to be able to say, when we feel the need to
31:16say something negative about another particularly Black woman, to really, I want it to kind of
31:21turn and convict, like, let me just choose not to.
31:24Even if I feel this way, I'm going to choose not to say that, you know what I mean?
31:27Just because I think there's things that we have to unlearn, behaviors that we have, that
31:33have been ingrained in us from, again, slavery, you know what I mean?
31:36Yes.
31:37And so I feel like-
31:39And so revival, I mean, just, I mean, you know, and really looking at what lynching is
31:45and this film, and you mentioned your cast, Miss Lawrence, like, Miss Lawrence killed,
31:52I mean, for a first-time actor too, like, I believed, I believed everyone.
31:59I mean, that's part of it.
32:00It's like, and that's not a small thing to say that when I said, I believed you, like,
32:04there is something when you're aware that people are in roles, but I believed Miss Lawrence
32:10fully, I believed they were your friends, I believed they were your lovers, I believed
32:16that cast, and I think that I felt like you all believed in the project, believed in me,
32:25believed in each other, believed in Black people, believed in us, the beloved community, like
32:31it all, you know, I feel that.
32:34What is next?
32:37Are you in a studio?
32:39I am, yeah.
32:40Okay, I'm just, so, is there, like, new music coming?
32:46Because I saw you being Miss Angela, I'm, I was like, okay, what's she doing?
32:50What is, what's happening now?
32:52And that was beautifully done, like, that was perfect.
32:56Oh, thank you so much.
32:57Thank you, thank you.
32:58Body language, like, the way that you caved in a little bit with the turtleneck
33:03and the afro coming over, the, the, it was perfect.
33:07You know, one of my favorite things about Angela too,
33:09because she was so thin, right?
33:11She was so, you know, but one of my favorite things when I watched those videos of her,
33:14you know, a lot of people are like this with the fist and a lot of, she was so gangsta with it.
33:19She just would walk in the room and just be like, you know what I mean?
33:21Like, just barely even touch it.
33:23Y'all know what it is.
33:24You know what I mean?
33:24Like, but I think for me that, that visual and all of these visuals, you know,
33:29as we'll continue to sort of put these into people's psyche, I just, I want people, someone
33:33asked me, they said, if Billie Holiday had survived, right?
33:36And that is assuming she was able to kick the drugs.
33:38Maybe, you know, the government, you know, stopped going after her or weren't able to
33:43successfully kill her because that is what I like people to understand from this.
33:46They truly, truly did.
33:47And, um, but, uh, what I want people, they asked me, would she have been a part of civil
33:52rights movement?
33:53And I laugh at that.
33:53Cause I'm like, what, like as we know it.
33:57So I'm like, not only, not only would she have, I believe been a part, she would have
34:02been at the center, you know, and, and investing it.
34:05That's the huge part.
34:06I'm so like a passing hands in our community.
34:08I love, you know, Tyler, my co-star was telling me, we were talking about Sidney Portier, you
34:12know, and Harry Belafonte and he was sharing with me just every time they would get, they
34:17would invest in the movement.
34:18So you would see a jolt of, of, of, of activity when it comes to civil rights.
34:22That's right.
34:23So I think that's why I put the, the, the, you know, at the end of the Jimmy Fallon performance
34:27was the rolled up money was the passing, the passing of hands, which is to connect us
34:31to, you know, Tulsa, Oklahoma on down through Billy to Harry to Sidney to, and so the goal
34:38with these visuals is that not only would she have been a part of it, you would have seen
34:42Billie Holiday in the spaces we saw Angela Davis, in the spaces we saw Assata Shakur.
34:46Or that we saw, you know, as we see Fred Hampton, you know, Bobby Seale on down, you know what
34:54I mean?
34:54To, and so I, it was sort of another spirit sort of lives through all of us.
35:00That is the spirit of our ancestors through all of us.
35:02So, but yes, that's what that visual came from.
35:05But yes, I am working on new music.
35:07And the album, the album, Tigress and Tweet is actually the first single off the album
35:12as well as the movie.
35:14The new singles release in April, and then we have a new album coming June 4th.
35:18So I'm really, really excited.
35:21I didn't mean to pull this Sade-esque timeline, but it just had worked out that way.
35:29Yes.
35:30It wasn't supposed to be this long, but you know, it happened this way.
35:33So, but I'm grateful, you know, it's important to start asking for that time back.
35:37You know what I mean?
35:38Like there, to let the work be the work and give yourself time to develop and time to make
35:44the music that you need to, because now we're going to be, and this is not for any pressure,
35:50but we're going to be looking at you.
35:51Like you can't just be popping a little, unless you want to have fun.
35:56Like, I think it's important to have fun too.
35:57Like to just rock the party too.
35:59I think if it's real.
36:00If it's real.
36:01Exactly.
36:02Yeah.
36:02I think, and I love what you said, because I feel the same way.
36:05I'm like, you know, I realize not as just as an artist, as a person, I'm a slow burn
36:09person.
36:09You know what I mean?
36:10So for me, again, if you just want to pop something off, cause you like, cool, I just
36:13feel like shaking it, this is popping.
36:14That's you.
36:15And that feels natural.
36:16And I'll have moments like that too.
36:18But, but I am a, I need the time to really be re-inspired into it.
36:23You know, most of the time I do.
36:25So I love that you said that we should ask for the time back.
36:28We should, because it's sort of like, okay, we, we give and we, you know, we do all these
36:32things that are the, and you experience the world.
36:35It's real because you're encountering people in the real life, but you experience it almost
36:39in these bursts.
36:40And so it almost feels artificial.
36:42And so you really need the time to just to, to, to experience things and to live.
36:47So I, I'm a huge, huge believer in that, you know what I mean?
36:50And I, Billie Holiday is my biggest inspiration.
36:52So she colors the intentionality of what it is that I do.
36:56I want to impact people and I want to, to, to prostrate people the way strange fruit prostrated
37:01me at 11 years old.
37:02You know what I mean?
37:03So it doesn't have to always be that serious.
37:05Sometimes I can be prostrate in front of a little turnip song, you know what I'm saying?
37:09But you know, I wanted to prostrate and then I'm going to drop it, but you know,
37:16but that's what black women can do because that, you know, and you know, I just, when
37:22you were saying how you feel that Billie would have been at the center of the movement and
37:27she, she happened to be in front of it, right?
37:30Like she happened to be this lone star.
37:33And I feel like in this time, in this moment, we get to surround her with all these black
37:39women, which she didn't have right without, she didn't have the mothers and the aunties
37:44and the, you know, she did not all the women of black lives matter, but now we have it right.
37:51We, we can surround her spirit, her legacy through you and through this film, you need
38:00a movement around her and there's a movement around you.
38:04There's a movement around all of us now, like black women and the beloved community
38:10at large, um, are in a different place.
38:14And, um, girl, I feel like we're kind of coming out of an administration coming out of a pandemic,
38:20but I feel like this movie is going to mark this time for us.
38:25Like when we began to rock, like not to be corny, but like to, to, to rise again in a
38:33different way and to honor our complexities.
38:36And I, um, I just can't wait to see what comes next from you.
38:42My beautiful, beautiful sister.
38:48You did it.
38:49I feel the same about all of y'all.
38:51I tell people, I said, man, the love that I am feeling from black women right now, I
38:56mean, yeah, I do believe it is preordained.
38:59I do believe all of these misconceptions that we've, we've held that have been sort of thrust
39:04upon us about each other.
39:06I'm like, no, like let's dissolve all of that.
39:09You know what I mean?
39:09Let's dissolve all of that.
39:10Cause I love black women, you know?
39:12So I'm like, yeah, from my women in general, but I love black women.
39:16Those are my sisters.
39:17You know what I mean?
39:18So I, I, from my mother to my grandmother, to Billy to, you know, and I love people who
39:23love us.
39:23I love Lee for telling the story where he always said, this is for black women.
39:28That is who supported me when no one else supported me, you know?
39:31And so it is so much power in that, you know what I mean?
39:34And for him to recognize that and tell the story, it's a blessing, you know, definitely.
39:40Yeah.
39:41Thank you everyone.
39:42Thank you, Sidra.
39:43Thank you, black women.
39:46Just thank you.
39:47That's my prayer for today.
39:48That's a, that's a full prayer.
39:50Isn't it?
39:50Just thank you.
39:51Amen.
39:53All right, sis.
39:54I love you.
39:56Love you guys so much.
40:05Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Billy.
40:10Seems good to be back home.
40:17My name is Billy Holiday.
40:29I'm my own hero.
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