*Singer Andra Day has opened up about the emotional experience that came with cutting off her “12 years of hair growth” to play Billie Holiday in an upcoming biopic.
Speaking on the PEOPLE Every Day podcast, Day, 36, said there was “no way to do justice” to Holiday without “going that deep” with her physical transformation — which included losing weight, smoking cigarettes, and chopping off her long locks.
“It was definitely a transformation,” she said. “You know, usually you’re like celebrating, you’re like, ‘Yay, big chop.’ But I was like, ‘Did we just straight [cut] right into the back of my head? Okay.'”
“It was worth it,” she added. “I was happy actually. I actually really enjoyed the short hair. So ultimately it was working, and I think there’s just no way to do a character like her’s justice without going [all in]. I mean, that’s a Black woman in [the] ’30s, you know, there’s no way to do a justice without going that deep.”
Day also started drinking hard liquor to prepare for the role.
READ MORE: Andra Day: Billie Holiday Portrayal in New Biopic was ‘Completely Life Changing’ / WATCH
“I started to smoke cigarettes. I picked up the habit and started drinking a lot of gin a lot,” the star said.
She previously told actor Leslie Odom Jr. during Variety‘s Actors on Actors interview that she “basically abused my body for a long time.”
She added, “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.”
Day continued: “I 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 had to change her voice to sound like Holiday.
“That was an early decision that we made right away to do the singing,” Day said in the Variety interview. “Every time I would sing a song I’d go, ‘Okay, 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?”
“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” drops Feb. 26 on Hulu.
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