It just is what it is., Billie Holidays life story reemerging in 2021 feels almost willed to be. He knew that to secure his bureaus future, he needed a high-profile victory, over intoxication and over black people, and so he turned back to Billie Holiday. Trevante Rhodes, who played Fletcher opposite Andra Days amazing portrayal of Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, said that in his research for the character, he came across an interview with Fletcher in which his lack of explanation for his relationship with Holiday spoke volumes. Drugs became racialized, with cocaine coded as being associated with Black Americans, opioids with Chinese immigrants, and marijuana with Mexican immigrants. The next scenes are somewhat fudged: The movie depicts Holiday at Joe Guys New York apartment the day after the performance, where shes apprehended by a Anslinger sent Fletcher, one of the FBIs few Black agents at the time, to follow Holiday, because he knew a white agent tailing her into Jazz clubs would raise One day, Harry Anslingerwas told that there were also white women, just as famous as Billie, who had drug problemsbut he responded to them rather differently. But privately, he told his friends he didnt really know if his victim was a spy at all, and he didnt care. '", Enter Agent Jimmy Fletcher, a Black federal officer who was assigned to infiltrate Holiday's personal inner circle. With the emotional adventure of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closing out the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead. Inspired to create the film without the influence of alcohol or drugs, The United States vs. Billie Holiday is Daniels first sober film. Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture. Fletcher did not agree. Holiday would continue singing the song for the Cafe Society crowd, and they ate it up. (It even smells like the South.) That is also what partly drew him in. So why dont you do that? But Jimmys partner arrived and sent for a policewoman to conduct a body search. For her, Harry wrote with satisfaction, there would be no more Good Morning Heartache., This article is an adapted excerpt from Johann Haris book Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, published by Bloomsbury. Their relationship was a complex one. Its when your senses kind of overlap. What really did her in was when her abusive husband, Louis McKay, got involved. Im going to do her up so goddam bad she going to remember as long as she live. He travelled to D.C. to see Harry, and he agreed to set her up. Before our conversation begins, Rhodes turns his camera out to show me the snow outside the sliding door of his moms house in Austin. Politico reported that after one run-in following the first raid, Fletcher and Holiday "talked for hours"; they even danced together at Club Ebony. That's Barry, and Lee is more abrasive, more visceral. She was taken to the Knickerbocker Hospital in Manhattan and made to wait for an hour and a half on a stretcher, and they said she was a drug addict and turned her away. It's easy to say you want to do something, but walking to do it is very, very difficult. To me, this is all about how we love this country and it dismisses us, But then also be strong and proud whenever he's speaking to his superiors. But the main conflict that Fletcher faces in the film is when the chameleons colors are at odds with one another. But he remembered Moonlight and its colors. Painted in history as the Black man who betrayed Holiday, Rhodes devoured books on Holiday and Fletcher and their relationship. So in that regard, we're in a much, much, much better place. . As he looked over his new staffjust a few years before his pursuit of Billie Holiday beganhe saw a sunken army who had spent fourteen years waging war on alcohol only to see alcohol win, and win big. To Anslinger, this was musical anarchy and evidence of a recurrence of the primitive impulses that lurk in black people, waiting to emerge. Tragically, her personal life was marked by horrifying abuse. The man was arrestedbut Holiday was sent to a reformatory. In reality, Anslinger had assigned a different agent, one who hadn't "gone soft," to hound Holiday, and Fletcher didn't hear from her again until she sent him a signed copy of her 1956 autobiography, according to Politico. The case was called The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and in a memoir, she wrote, "That's just the way it felt." There was a lot about her life that we weren't allowed to know, and it is so necessary right now for people to truly understand her and to understand their history.". If you Google Fletcher, you wont find out too much about him that isnt in the film or, That gives me an opportunity to really cultivate a character from the ground up, he told Refinery29 ahead of the films February 26 release on Hulu. Then in 2012, right after his senior year, he decided to follow a theater professors advice and move to Los Angeles, which he said was a gamble in the most beautiful way, but most terrifying way. For years, he had been strong (a.k.a. WebIn 2019, they searched a parcel of land in Hillsdale Township, Michigan. He was certain that the war on drugs was a stepping stone for, not an attack on, the Black community. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. [Its about a] Black American woman living in America whos been in love with her country her whole life. We may earn a commission from these links. Then to continue working for them. There is a 75 percent chance she's listening to Lorde right now. That's always been the artists' job to speak truth to power or to attempt to. It was the last thing the Japanese man ever saw. Some of the nicer ones have feelings enough to hate themselves sometime for what they have to do . The movie is directed by Lee Daniels from a script written by Suzan-Lori Parks, but its based on the 2015 book Chasing the Scream by writer Johann Hari. He gets to know her. .css-umdwtv{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:.0625rem;text-decoration-color:#FF3A30;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:background 0.4s;transition:background 0.4s;background:linear-gradient(#ffffff, #ffffff 50%, #d5dbe3 50%, #d5dbe3);-webkit-background-size:100% 200%;background-size:100% 200%;}.css-umdwtv:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;-webkit-background-position:100% 100%;background-position:100% 100%;}Fans online theorized about his disappearance, speculating that he wasnt committed enough for the industry. It imagined black bodies hanging from trees as a dark fruit native to the South. While she lay dying, a by-then retired Fletcher attempted to visit Holiday in the hospital. . When Billie was forty-four years old,a young musician named Frankie Freedom was serving her a bowl of oatmeal and custard in his apartment when she suddenly collapsed. So as he got to work on Billie, Colonel White was watched by his last victim, and this made him happy. But when the details were looked at later, there seemed to be something odd: a wastepaper basket seems an improbable place to keep a stash, and the kit for shooting heroin was never entered into evidence by the copsthey said they left it at the scene. She checked herself in at a cost of one thousand dollars, and according to Ken Vails book Lady Days Diary, she didnt so much as shiver. The 1967 film Guess Whos Coming to Dinner starred Sidney Poitier and Katharine Houghton as a ne, As the open-hearted matriarch Hattie Mae in Tyler Perrys 2022 film A Jazzmans Blues, Amirah Vann demonstrates a great tenderness and fierce love to b, This story includes spoilers for Saint Omer. Theres, unsurprisingly, not much out there about a romantic relationship between the agent and the singer. But of all the people Rhodes could be stranded with, mom is a top choice. His genius wasnt for invention: it was for presenting his agents as the hand that would steady all these cultural tremblings. The most abrasive paintings that people still talk about today are the shit. That's something that [director] Lee [Daniels] wanted to embellish a little bit to show that aspect of a rich Black family during that era, because we don't see too many depictions of that, Rhodes explains. But how much of the film is true? He was moved to write a poem, feeling appalled by racism in America and particularly disturbed by a photograph of a lynching that he said "haunted" him "for days," according to NPR. You dont have to do that. We come from a different tribe. But what pulled Rhodes attention most was the idea of stepping into the role of Jimmy Fletcher. The film is unnervingly relevant in 2021. Federal Bureau of Narcotics director Harry Anslinger, Fletcher follows Billie Holiday everywhere. It sounded, his internal memos said, like the jungles in the dead of night. Another memo warned that unbelievably ancient indecent rites of the East Indies are resurrected in this black mans music. Anslinger hated hiring Black agents, according to These Romantic Movies Are Guaranteed To Make You Cry, The Greatest Romantic Comedies That Youll Watch On Repeat, 26 Movies Every Woman Should See At Least Once. Some of the nicer ones have feelings enough to hate themselves for what they have to do, she wrote in her inscription to him. "She's really haunted by what Jimmy Fletcher did to hereven years later," Hari added. ", Singing "Strange Fruit," Primetimer writes, "drove Harry Anslinger nuts, and made her personal destruction a goal of his. In real life, Anslinger served as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a predecessor to the Drug Enforcement Administration, from 1930 to 1962. She was handcuffed to her bed, photographed for a mug shot, and fingerprinted. As is depicted in the film, however, that trauma didn't stop once she became famous. In the film's depiction, Holiday's impact with the emotional song made her a target in the eyes of the federal government. Jimmy felt uncomfortable. And that may be true. So now, on top of the cirrhosis of the liver, Billie went into heroin withdrawal, alone. Now, as a former convict, she was stripped of her cabaret performers license, on the grounds that listening to her might harm the morals of the public. Holiday tracked Fletcher down and sent him a signed copy of her 1956 autobiography, writing inside: Most federal agents are nice people. Trevante Rhodes tells me that, to him, the color of The United States vs. Billie Holiday is maroon. Neither passed. He was especially angered that this black woman didnt know her place. In The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Lee Daniels new Hulu Original film about the life of Billie Holiday and her constant battle with the U.S. Treasury Departments Federal Bureau of Narcotics, federal agent Jimmy Fletcher is sent to bust her for heroin possession and ends up falling in love with her. You victimize yourself by becoming a junkie.. It was the last straw.. I wanted to do what Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, and Billy Dee Williams did. Ill strip, Billie said. He wrote to MGM, reporting he observed no evidence of a drug problem. He was a Black agent assigned by the egregiously racist head of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger (played by Declassified FBI files quote an agent inside the narcotics bureau (possibly Anslinger) as saying that 'because of the importance of Holiday, it has been the policy of his bureau to discredit individuals of this caliber using narcotics. Most federal agents are nice people. Billie Holiday never stopped being addicted. All that policewoman is going to do is look up my pussy.. If we did that, everyone would know we were crazy. Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Andra Day in her debut film role, Lady Day's on-screen journey includes being pursued by the FBI in light of her involvement with the civil rights movement, her struggle with drug use, and her complicated romantic relationships. According to Hari, after Fletcher first raided her apartment for drugs, he took Holiday aside and offered to talk to Ansliger for her in an attempt to lighten her punishment, saying, I dont want you to lose your job. Soon after, they ran into each other at a bar and talked for hours, Hari said. ", Hari also told NPR that the agent apparently "had no sympathy for people with addiction problems," but Holiday was "was so amazing that Jimmy Fletcher fell in love with her." And it seems like their dalliance didn't just exist on-screen. Rhodes is a self-taught student of art, whose admiration of color and details seeps into his role in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, out now on Hulu. That's just what Lee does in the most beautiful way with his works, Rhodes says of Daniels. Theyve got a dirty job to do and they have to do it. A six-inch deep blanket of white is out there, causing all kinds of problems for a state unprepared for the weather. For Rhodes to play part in it does as well. He wasnt allowed inside her room, but Holiday was reportedly happy to learn that he'd tried to see her. But if youve ever taken a painting and held it close to your faceso close that your nose touches the canvasyou can see that theres a chaotic rhythm in the brushstrokes. While Hari asserts that Fletcher fell in love with her, there isn't much documented about any kind of romantic or sexual relationship between the two of them, at least not to the extent that is shown in the film. Main Image: Andra Day and Trevante Rhodes in The United States vs. Billie Holiday from Paramount Pictures. When he hangs out with her boisterous entourage while they drink and do drugs backstage, hes the quiet outsider looking in. She was intending to give it to the nurses who had looked after her, to thank them. Colonel George Whitea vastly obese white slab of a manhad his hands tightened around his throat, and he was not letting go. Holiday has died. We dont know whether Jimmy joined in, but we do know he had no pity for addicts: I never knew a victim, he said. In reality, the family had a well-documented history of mental illness, and Licata himself was known to be severely mentally ill before the attack. "She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type. As Hari tells NPR, "Jimmy Fletcher's brief was follow Billie Holiday everywhere she goes; befriend her; document her drug use, and get it ready for an indictment. In his assessment, Rhodes believes that history had remembered Fletcher for his faults, but none of his circumstances or motivations. Narcotics agents were sent to her hospital bed and said they had found less than one-eighth of an ounce of heroin in a tinfoil envelope. You watch, baby, Billie warned from her tiny gray hospital room. Now that Agent L.G. This was the old Department of Prohibition, but prohibition had been abolished and his men needed a new role, fast. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 1975 to 'Moscato's Dump' by FBI agents in Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey." Set partly in the South, Lee shot the film in Montreal, though Rhodes says its a great replacement. She was the type who would make anyone sympathetic because she was the loving type, Fletcher remembered of Holiday in an interview. ", Trevante Rhodes and the Philosophy of Art, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. The lives of the jazzmen, he said, reek of filth., His agents reported back to him that many among the jazzmen think they are playing magnificently when under the influence of marihuana but they are actually becoming hopelessly confused and playing horribly., The Bureau believed that marijuana slowed down your perception of time dramatically, and this was why jazz music sounded so freakishthe musicians were literally living at a different, inhuman rhythm. WebOn June 25, 1975, the evening before the murders, Agents Ron Williams and Jack Coler were on the reservation attempting to locate and arrest Jimmy Eagle. Other than the exaggerated love story, The United States vs. Billie Holiday offers up an unpolished look at Holiday's hard upbringing and the trauma she experienced before becoming a huge star. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. At a bar and talked for hours, Hari said the controversial fourth, Minor spoilers ahead,. 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