A legendary jazz singer finds herself besieged by the Feds in Director Lee Daniels’ biographical drama, The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
Daniels’ film follows Holiday during her career as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.
On February 10, Daniels discussed the making of The United States vs. Billie Holiday in a DGA Virtual Q&A moderated by Director Michael Schultz (Woman Thou Art Loosed).
In a movie that tells the story of a musical icon, Lee spoke about the challenges of filming the songs in such a way that they match the truth of the character on the screen. “We pre-recorded it, but we had to change some of the music and make it when we were shooting because the Billie that we knew then wasn't the Billie that we knew when we were shooting. She [actor Andra Day] evolved as Billie Holiday. She was so down into it that the songs that she sang — which were magnificent — for the pre-records really were not as evolved as she was. Also, things would happen in the scenes that would change the dynamic of what the meaning of that song was so, often times, I had to have her sing live for a lot of the songs. ‘Strange Fruit’ is one of them. ‘Pig Foot and a Bottle of Beer’ is another as is ‘Lover Man.’ The producers freaked out but directing is not for the scared.”
Daniels’ other directorial credits include the feature films Shadowboxer, The Paperboy and Lee Daniels’ The Butler; the movie for television Good People; and episodes of Empire and STAR. He was also nominated for a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for his 2009 feature Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire.
Daniels has been a DGA member since 2007.
You can listen to Daniels' Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.
About the DGA Virtual Q&A Program
Mirroring the ever-popular DGA Membership Screening Q&A program in the virtual space, DGA Members can now learn more about films directly from the filmmakers in this series of livestreamed conversations.