Andra Dayis celebrating all the women nominated alongside her for their outstanding performances this past year.
On playing Holiday, Day said, “This experience, outside of my niece and nephew, was the greatest experience of my life.”
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When asked about how she felt being nominated for awards alongside veteran actresses like Davis and McDormand, Day said she wasn’t in any sort of competition with the women in her category.
“We’re just sharing this space, we are representing multiple stories, and we are loving on each other. I’m celebrating them, rooting for them,” the Grammy-nominated star said.
Day also mentioned how special it was to be nominated for Best Actress next to Davis, which is historic in itself.
“Just being with Viola in this space, especially being the first time two Black women have been nominated sinceDiana Rossand Cicely Tyson, it’s amazing,” Day said. “It feels a little overwhelming.”
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Day is referring to the 45th Academy Awards, when Ross was nominated for her role as Billie Holiday in the 1972 biographical dramaLady Sings the Blues, and Tyson was nominated for her role as Rebecca Morgan inSounderabout an African American family in the Deep South during the Great Depression. It was the first time two Black women were nominated for Best Actress at the awards show.
Billie Holiday; Andra Day.Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images; Takashi Seida/Paramount Pictures/Hulu
“I want it to be something different,” Day explained. “I want it to be something that’s very sexy, very feminine but also strong and confident at the same time because that’s kind of what she brought out of me.”
She continued, “I wanted [Holiday] represented in it, I wanted Diana Ross' Billie Holiday from the ’70s… I wanted sort of the strength and focus ofAudra McDonald’s Billie Holiday,” the star said, “and then me, 2021, my Billie.”
source: people.com