WithThe United States vs. Billie Holidaynow streaming on Hulu, I recently got to speak withLee Danielsabout directing the Golden Globe-winning film. During the interview, he talked about how they came up with the title, whyDiana Ross’Lady Sings the Bluesmeans so much to him, how he knewAndra Daywas the right person to playBillie Holiday, how Holiday kicked off the civil rights movement, why he’d love to do a longer director’s cut of the film and more. In addition, Daniels revealed his desire to make a gay superhero film, why hisWolverinemovie pitch was a disaster, and why he’s excited to tellSammy Davis Jr’sstory.
If you’re not familiar withThe United States vs. Billie Holiday, which is inspired by Billie Holiday’s life story, the film pulls back the curtain on one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time and the way the Federal government targeted her over her efforts to sing “Strange Fruit,” a song about lynching’s in the South. The film stars Day as Billie Holiday alongsideTrevante Rhodes,Natasha Lyonne,Rob Morgan,Evan Ross,Tyler James Williams,Miss Lawrence,Tone Bell,Erik LaRay Harvey, andDa’Vine Joy Randolph.
Check out what he had to say below.
Collider: What movie have you seen the most?
LEE DANIELS:Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte.
If you could direct any TV series, what would you love to guest write and direct, or guest direct?
DANIELS:Veneno.
My last one for you, if you can get the financing for any project tomorrow, what would you make and why?
DANIELS: I would make a gay superhero film. And why? Because we haven’t seen one.
As a fan of the superhero genre, I’m waiting for that to be made. Jumping into why I get to talk to you today, I thought that the titleThe United States vs. Billie Holidayis a great title, but I’m curious, did you guys ever debate using Strange Fruit as the title?
DANIELS: Yes.
RELATED:Andra Day on Why She Tried Turning Down Playing Billie Holiday Multiple Times
How much debate was there over that?
DANIELS: Quite a bit. That’s a very good question and I’ve not had that question before. We were trying to get Strange Fruit, we couldn’t get Strange Fruit because of the rights. We just couldn’t get the rights. And then I was thinking of All of Me and I couldn’t get the rights to that. But, ultimately, I felt that it was about the government and her, so I stuck with Suzi-Lori Parks’s original title because, ultimately, it is about the government. And, ultimately, it is about the government taking her down. And, ultimately, it is about bringing eyeballs to the fact that the government tried to take her down. So, to me, I’m absolutely content with the title.
One of the things about Billie Holiday is her story is so unbelievable and there were so many facets of her life that you could sort of dive in on. With the popularity of limited series, how did you decide, “I want to do it as a movie and not as a limited series”?
DANIELS: Well, there is a limited series, I believe, that’s coming out, I think. So that’s one. I think there is one. So it wasn’t an option for me because there is a limited series that’s coming up. That’s in pre-production or development.
One of the things that’s really nice about it coming out on Hulu is that you don’t have to worry about the opening weekend Box Office. Is that something that’s going through your brain at all, about the fact that it’s just going to be out there for the world to see?
DANIELS: No. I’ve never had to worry about that. I’ve never worried about that. Sometimes I hit it out of the park, sometimes I don’t. I release it because I know that it will inevitably live in a place where people will love it and cherish it or hate it. But regardless, it’s out there in a space where it’s admired for the work that it is for forever.
You have led many actors to some amazing performances. How many people are calling you saying, “Hey, we should do something because I’m a big fan of your work”? Because I would imagine that people want to be directed by you.
DANIELS: Thank you very much. And I get that often, but it has to be the right thing. A lot of actors call me. I remember after I didPrecious, Hugh Jackman called and wanted me to do aWolverine. And he sent me into the studio to Fox, I guess that’s where they do them at. And I had never done a studio film before and it was adisasterand I literally pulled over … Yeah, it was at Fox because I pulled over to the Kentucky Fried Chicken afterwards and ate a whole six pack of wings. It was the worst meeting of my life. I don’t know how he getsWolverinefromPrecious, but I love him and he’s a friend to this day.
First of all, I did not know this. Second of all, that’s amazing. Did you go in and actually pitch or was it just a general meeting?
DANIELS: I pitched. I pitched my way right out of the room.
You creditLady Sings the Bluesas a big influence in your life, Diana Ross. What was it about that film and her performance that meant so much to you?
DANIELS: I don’t know that we’ve seen, ever, a performance like that. And at 13, teenager, I’m not sure that I’d ever seen a performance like that, that was so real and so visceral from anybody. For someone that I understood. I understood that woman. I knew that woman, she was a relative, she was a friend, she was a neighbor, she was a teacher, she was everything to me. So to see that person on screen, I identified with it and I had a visceral reaction to the performance. I don’t think that I’d ever seen a performance that raw and honest from an actress, in particular, a black actor ever. And I think if you study her performance, it set the tone for everything that I try to achieve in all of my work.
What’s interesting is that was, I believe, Diana’s first movie role, and this is Andra’s first movie role, so it’s like this synergy. I guess, when did you know that Andra was the right person? Because there isn’t a whole lot of experience in front of the camera prior to you putting her in this.
DANIELS: When I knew that I could roll the dice with her was when her acting coach sent me this videotape of her. The acting coach put the iPhone on and videotaped her getting into character, morphing into character for the audition. And I saw the birth of a soul. I’d never witnessed anything like that before. She just sort of became Billie with the voice and the crackle and the hunched and she became in a way that I had never seen, even Diana Ross do. It was on some next level. So there was no question that I had to hire her. But even then, I got a little nervous because you never know, and was it just a fluke? When we did costume fittings, I put them in a car together.
The restaurant scene that you saw was originally written, the scene where she meets both men at the same time, the money guy that’s giving her the money and her new boyfriend, that scene was originally in a car outside, but we couldn’t afford a car outside so we kept it in a small restaurant. Anyway, in the makeup tests, I put them in the car and I said, “Okay, guys, act.” And this is the first time I’d seen any of them acting. And I was crossing my fingers in the back seat as they were in the front seat and they were nervous. And I said, “Okay, I think it’s going to work.” So that was a confirmation. So it was the tape, the videotape that I saw her morph and then in the costume fittings tests I saw her sort of change. So that’s when I knew.
I don’t think a lot of people give Billie enough credit for being a civil rights leader, but her singing Strange Fruit in the 1930s and speaking out is … Nowadays, people are hesitant to speak out and this is almost 100 years later and she was doing it in the 1930s, which is incredible and also, probably why the government hated her and why she was a thorn on certain people’s sides. But can you sort of talk about the fact that she is someone who was breaking the mold before anyone?
DANIELS: Yeah. I just think that she kicked off the civil rights movement as we know it to be. And I think that history is written for us by the government, the powers to be. And we have to, especially as black people, find our history. That I didn’t know about this and I consider myself pretty savvy with black history and that I had to dig for this and that I was a fan of Billie Holiday, that I didn’t really know this story is a testament to how things are presented to us in a way that we have to dig for it. We got to dig for our history.
Obviously, you didn’t have all the time and money in the world to make this project. I’m curious, how did you want to film? Did you want to film certain things at the beginning of the shoot or at the end of the shoot based on what you were looking for or was it just, “we have to film it on certain days.”
DANIELS: What does that mean?
Did you want to film her singing Strange Fruit at the end of the shoot or at the very beginning?
DANIELS: Oh, my God. You’ve got some good questions, Steve.
Thank you.
DANIELS: Really good questions. We were finding the character. It’s crazy. It’s what’s on the page and then as Billie, each day, she was bringing something stronger and stronger, in particular, with Strange Fruit. I pushed that song. It was originally scheduled to be shot earlier in the shoot, but I pushed it later because I could see that she was changing day-to-day and that she was becoming better day-to-day. So I felt that she would have dropped into a place, and it was driving production crazy, really crazy, but I knew that the song would be more potent towards the end of the shoot. But that’s a very good question and no one’s asked. You asked me two questions I haven’t gotten so far.
I’m always curious about the edit because that’s the final rewrite. Did you had a much longer cut of the movie, were there a lot of deleted scenes?
DANIELS: Yeah. There were a lot of deleted scenes. There were a lot of deleted scenes that I’m trying to put together a director’s cut with. But right now, they exist only as deleted scenes or added scenes. And the edit, I love my editor so much, Jay Rabinowitz, who did aRequiem for a Dream. I wanted the film to feel a little bit that you were listening to jazz. It should feel a little jazzy. It should feel a little bit like you’ve taken a little bit of heroin. It’s not your typical biopic by any stretch of the imagination, it’s just a moment in time. I wanted you to feel what it was like to sort of be high and as a jazz musician. To be a fly on the wall unto this crazy world of the government chasing her down.
I think the movie’s two hours and 10 minutes, if you end up doing a director’s cut, how long would it be?
DANIELS: Dangerously long, because I don’t give a fuck, okay, at that point. Oh, obnoxiously long, maybe two hours and 40 minutes.
Well, with streaming, you would think that down the road, you could just be like, “Hey, I want to do the director’s cut and just put it up.”
DANIELS: Let’s see how everybody responds to this cut.
I’m really looking forward to someone taking on Sammy Davis Jr. and talking about his life story. I know you’re maybe doing a mini-series. What can you say about this?
DANIELS: It was great doing Billie because that gave me this time period, but I also am a fan of the 60s. So I think that Sammy picked it up where Billie left it off and was also an unappreciated hero. I think that he supported the civil rights movement and was yet also sort of rejected by our people. I’m excited about telling that story for that reason too.
KEEP READING:‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’: What’s Fact vs. What’s Fiction in Lee Daniels' New Biopic
