The United States vs. Billie Holiday with Director Lee Daniels and Michael Schultz (Ep. 285)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Lee Daniels discusses his new film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, with fellow director Michael Schultz in a spoiler-filled virtual Q&A. The film follows the career of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Man, I think that everybody bought their A game because they knew how important this story was.
0:07.5	You know, and it was their country.
0:09.8	We're all artists at the end of the day.
0:11.5	And all we're trying to do is do something that we can be proud of.
0:17.0	And this story is, this makes me proud to be an American.
0:23.3	Hello, and welcome back to the director's cut, brought to you by the Directors Guild of America.
0:28.7	Today's episode takes us behind the scenes of director Lee Daniels' new biographical drama,
0:33.4	The United States versus Billy Holiday.
0:35.7	The film follows the career of legendary jazz singer Billy
0:38.8	Holiday as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting
0:43.0	operation led by black federal agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair.
0:48.8	In addition to the United States versus Billy Holiday, Mr. Daniel's other directorial credits
0:53.7	include the future films Shadowboxer, The Paperboy, Mr. Daniels' other directorial credits include the feature
0:54.4	films Shadow Boxer, The Paperboy, and Lee Daniels the Butler, and episodes of the series
1:00.6	Empire and Star.
1:03.1	He was nominated for the DGA's Feature Film Award for his 2009 feature, Precious, based
1:08.3	on the novel by Sapphire.
1:10.4	Mr. Daniels spoke with director Michael Schultz about filming the United States versus Billy
1:14.8	Holiday in front of a virtual audience.
1:17.6	Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.
1:21.4	Hey, everybody.
1:23.4	Welcome.
	...

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