Here is a new look at Andra Day as Billie Holiday in a trailer for the made-in-Montreal biopic about the late jazz icon.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday, directed by Lee Daniels, focuses on the days when Holiday was targeted by the U.S. government as it tried to racialize the war on drugs. The singer was pressured to stop singing “Strange Fruit,” a ballad about the lynching of Black Americans.
“Whether you are new to the story and legacy of Billie Holiday or know every note she ever sang, I do hope our celebration of this complex woman does justice to a great musical legend and civil rights activist whose artistry resonates as well today, as it did 80 years ago,” said Daniels, in a release. “As recent events reveal, our country has much work to do in fulfilling its promise of a more perfect union.”
ON SET: Andra Day Portrays Billie Holiday In Montreal
The movie is premiering Feb. 26 on U.S. streaming service Hulu. (International distributor Sierra/Affinity has not yet announced where it will be available to Canadians.)
Day is the R&B singer whose 2015 debut album and its hit single “Rise Up” earned a pair of Grammy nominations. She voiced Sweet Tea in Cars 3 and had a small role in 2017’s Marshall.
Natasha Lyonne and Garrett Hedlund also star in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, as well as Evan Ross – whose mother Diana Ross portrayed Holiday in 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues.
iHeartRadio.ca was first to report that the film would be mostly shot in Montreal in late 2019 and later shared images from the set.
Watch the trailer below: (Warning: Contains language some may find offensive.)