‘The United States vs Billie Holiday’ Full Cast List: Meet Andra Day, Natasha Lyonne, Trevante Rhodes and the rest of the actors in biopic
‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ is an upcoming American biographical drama film directed by Lee Daniels, based on the book ‘Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs’ by Johann Hari. The film will focus on Billie’s career as she gets 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.
The trailer for the film also sees how she gets unconditional love from the audience but gets in trouble with the authorities for her protest song ‘Strange Fruit’, which talks about racism and brutality that was happening at the time.
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Let’s take a look at who all will be playing the iconic roles in the film:
Andra Day as Billie Holiday
The 36-year-old American singer, songwriter, and actor has multiple Grammy nominations. Her debut album, ‘Cheers to the Fall’, peaked at number 48 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The album was nominated for Best R&B Album and the album's main single, ‘Rise Up’, was nominated for Best R&B Performance at the 2016 Grammys. Her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the biopic ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ received two nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, including Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Best Original Song.
Trevante Rhodes as Jimmy Fletcher
The 31-year-old American actor is best known for his performance as Chiron in the Academy Award-winning film ‘Moonlight’. His other notable roles include ‘Bird Box’, ‘The Predator’, ‘12 Strong’, and ‘Smartass’.
Natasha Lyonne as Tallulah Bankhead
The 41-year-old American actor, director, writer, and producer is best known for playing Nicky Nichols in the Netflix comedy-drama series ‘Orange Is the New Black’, for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, Nadia Vulvokov in the Netflix comedy-drama series ‘Russian Doll’, which she also co-created, executive produced, wrote, and directed, and Jessica in the ‘American Pie’ film series. Her other film credits include ‘Everyone Says I Love You’, ‘Slums of Beverly Hills’, ‘But I'm a Cheerleader’, ‘All About Evil’, ‘Sleeping with Other People’, ‘Hello, My Name Is Doris’, and ‘Ad Astra’.
Garrett Hedlund as Harry J. Anslinger
The 36-year-old American actor, model, and singer is known for his roles in ‘Troy’, ‘Friday Night Lights’, ‘Four Brothers’, ‘Eragon’, ‘Death Sentence’, ‘Tron: Legacy’, ‘On the Road’, ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’, ‘Unbroken’, ‘Pan’, ‘Mudbound’, and ‘Triple Frontier’.
Rob Morgan as Louis McKay
The 47-year-old American actor is known for his role as Turk Barrett in the Netflix series ‘Daredevil’, ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Luke Cage’, ‘Iron Fist’, ‘The Defenders’, and ‘The Punisher’, making him the only actor to appear in all six of Marvel's Netflix television series also known as ‘Marvel Street-Level Heroes’ or ‘Marvel Knights’ series. His other notable roles include playing Hap Jackson in ‘Mudbound’, and Herbert Richardson in ‘Just Mercy’.
The film also stars Miss Lawrence as Miss Freddy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Roslyn, Evan Ross as Sam Williams, Tyler James Williams as Lester Young, Tone Bell as John Levy, Erik LaRay Harvey as Monroe, Melvin Gregg as Joe Guy, and Dana Gourrier as Sadie Fagan.
'The United States vs. Billie Holiday’ was first supposed to release on February 12, 2021, under the banner of Paramount Pictures. However, Hulu then acquired the movie rights and now the film will see the light of day on February 26, 2021.