Andra Day | Entertainment News, Photos, and Videos

Andra Day has revealed that to become Billie Holiday for Hulu’s The United States vs. Billie Holiday she dived deep into the singer’s life.

“There’s still a lot that I am working out in me from playing Billie,” the 36-year-old singer and actress shared in an interview about the movie. “She gets in, you know what I mean? She gets ahold.”

Andra explained that while diving in psychologically, she also did physically as well.

“It was a commitment,” she shared. “I think it’s one I’m recovering from still. I’d never smoked cigarettes before. Just starting out smoking, I was practicing with my acting coach … I was like, ‘I want some of your American Spirits. That first day I was drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes, and I went home and threw up, like, five times!”

Andra added that she was able to quit after they “finished the last pickup shots last year. But what I expected to be a four-, five- or six-month habit ended up turning into about a year and a half.”

On top of the smoking, Andra also started to drink as well. Billie actually died in 1959 of complications from cirrhosis caused by alcohol abuse.

“I drank a lot of gin, I drank bourbon,” she recalled. “I hadn’t drank in so long, and it was never really a big part of my life, even when I did when I was younger.”

Andra also says that she was losing a lot of weight for the role too: “I was losing it healthily throughout that [period], and then once it got closer to shooting, that’s when I let everyone know, ‘OK, I’m gonna just kinda starve myself at this point!’”

Now though, she’s starting to gain it back.

“I’ve actually just recently started to gain back a little bit of weight. I’m up to, like, 140, which is good, ’cause I was 124 on set.”

Andra‘s “Tigress & Tweed” from the soundtrack is nominated for her first Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday is streaming NOW on Hulu.

Andra Day is opening up about how she prepared to play Billie Holiday in Hulu’s upcoming movie, The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

Speaking to Leslie Odom Jr. for Variety’s Actors on Actors, the 36-year-old entertainer revealed she went deep into Billie‘s life in order to play the jazz singer.

“I basically abused my body for a long time,” she admitted. “I’m joking and not really joking. I got the role at the very top of 2018. Reading everything I could get my hands on. Listening to every interview. Apparently, I exhausted the internet of Billie Holiday photos. Apparently, the internet will tell you that you’ve reached the end.”

Andra added that she “put my family through it; I put myself through it…I went from 163 pounds to 124 pounds. I would talk like her and I don’t drink or smoke, but I started smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. Not that I recommend people do this; I just was desperate because this is my first role. I just asked God to give me all of the pain and trauma. I asked him to give me her pain and give me her trauma.”

She also spoke about changing the way she sang just for the role.

“That was an early decision that we made right away to do the singing,” Andra says. “Every time I would sing a song I’d go, OK, Lee’s going to hear this and he’s going to fire me. But I wouldn’t have done it if they’d been, ‘Do it in your voice.’ That for me would have probably been a no.”

“There’s victory and there is pain in her voice. So to me it was just like we’ve got to get it, we have to get it, you know what I mean? It’ll have to be my interpretation of it, but it has to be there.”

The United States vs. Billie Holiday will be out on Hulu on February 26.

Watch the heart stopping trailer here…

Andra Day hesitates in singing a song on stage as police officers wait to arrest her in the trailer for Hulu’s upcoming movie, The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

The upcoming movie, from Lee Daniels, will center on Billie’s life when she was the target of the FBI, as they attempted to derail her career.

If you’re unfamiliar, the FBI claims that they first targeted the prolific singer because of her history with substance abuse. However, the real reason was the true stories behind her songs, including “Strange Fruit”.

Lee said of casting Andra in the role, which is her first on-screen role ever, that many wanted him to cast Andra, but he says, “I don’t like being pressured into anything.”

But, he added, “she was enchanting and she did embody the spirit of Billie. I sent her to an acting coach because she had not acted before. And the acting coach, on the fly, turned her iPhone on and showed me her prepping and getting into character. Just from that 30 seconds of video footage, I saw Billie Holiday without question. The game was up. There was no acting. There was just being.”

Also starring Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund and Natasha Lyonne, The United States vs. Billie Holiday will debut on February 26 on Hulu.

The upcoming movie The United States vs Billie Holiday, which stars Andra Day as the title character, has been sold to Hulu!

The film was directed by Oscar nominee Lee Daniels and it has been considered a major contender during the 2021 awards season.

Variety reports that the movie was originally set up for a sale at Paramount Pictures, but the deal never actually closed. That studio had been planning an advertising campaign for the film, but now that the pandemic is not slowing down, it makes sense for the movie to be released elsewhere.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on February 26, 2021. No date has been announced for a streaming premiere on Hulu.

It’s likely that streaming services will dominate the Oscars in 2021 with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Apple all in the running with major contenders!

Here is the movie’s synopsis: “The legendary Billie Holiday, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, spent much of her career being adored by fans across the globe. Beginning in the 1940’s in New York City, the federal government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to escalate and racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial and heart-wrenching ballad, “Strange Fruit.” “

Andra Day is paying tribute to Chadwick Boseman.

The 35-year-old singer and the 43-year-old actor met on the set of the 2017 movie Marshall, which he starred in and she wrote the music for.

“I was only there for two days because I was just singing a song in the movie,” Andra shared with People. “As a fan, it was amazing to watch him on set. He was so kind to me and so inviting, and I was only there for two days. I think, for me, it was more impressive to see that he engaged with everyone in the exact same way. It wasn’t because I was an artist, he dealt [the same way] with everybody.”

Andra went on to say Chadwick was a source of “a lot of light” for people.

“I think his power was an impact on everyone,” Andra shared. “We all got power from him. You didn’t feel embarrassed or, ‘I’m not good enough around him,’ because he created that type of space. He was just a really special person. There’s no way to really describe it.”

Andra said that what she admired most about her “colleague and distant friend” Chadwick was his “authenticity.”

“I loved how authentic he was,” Andra continued. “I loved how much love he put into his work. He sought a life of service. He sought a life of authenticity, of giving. He created safe spaces where other people could be authentic. I wish more of us would do that more often with each other.”

Chadwick passed away on Friday, August 28 after quietly battling colon cancer.

We recently found out which four people were aware of his cancer diagnosis, outside of his family members.

Andra Day is back with a new single!

The 35-year-old singer just released her latest song “Make Your Troubles Go Away” – and you can listen to it right now.

PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Andra Day

Andra took a quick break from music last year as she worked on her upcoming movie The United States vs. Billie Holiday, where she will be portraying the iconic jazz songstress Billie Holiday.

The film, directed by Lee Daniels, also stars Garrett Hedlund, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, and Evan Ross.

You can download Andra Day‘s new song off of iTunes here – listen to “Make Your Troubles Go Away” now!

Check out the lyrics inside…More Here! »

Solange Knowles steps out in a cutout jumpsuit for the Lena Horne Prize for Artists Creating Social Impact Event at Town Hall on Friday night (February 28) in New York City.

The 33-year-old singer’s mom Tina Knowles and her husband Richard Lawson were there to support her, as well as Common, Andra Day, Leon Bridges, Jon Batiste and Mumu Fresh, among others.

Solange is the first ever recipient of the award, which honors “excellence at the intersection of arts and activism.”

She receives $100,000, which she will turn over to Project Row Houses, a Houston-based nonprofit.

“I will never forget being a young girl and the impact of hearing the great Lena Horne so radiantly and powerfully singing the words ‘believe in yourself’ from that remarkable moment in The Wiz,” Solange shared in a statement. “I have carried it with me closely my entire life.”

She continued, “At the age of 12, I played this very role at the Ensemble Theatre in Houston, Texas and it was then I learned about Lena’s dedicated activism and fearless integrity as a woman and groundbreaking artist. I am honored to be receiving an award that bears her name and continue her legacy of using the arts to inspire reflection and evoke change.”

FYI: Solange wore a David Koma jumpsuit with Rene Caovilla shoes. Common is wearing a Sandro suit.

15+ pictures inside of Solange Knowles at the Lena Horne Prize event…