Danielle Brooks, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Thanks for having me.
-It's... -Are you kidding me?
Thank you for coming back.
Yeah, man, it's crazy,
'cause last time I was on your show,
I was secretly pregnant.
I've-I've loved watching your journey of you becoming a mom.
What's that been like, becoming a mom
and then the pandemic starting?
It's like, "Well, now I’m a mom, but I'm--
-but I’m also in a pandemic." -Yeah, it's crazy,
because, you know, a lot of people have suffered
and had a hard time with the pandemic.
So it feels really...
just not-- it just feels really bad to say
that it's been a blessing. You know?
Like, it's actually been good to have time to watch her grow
and to watch her crawl and walk
and learn to say "mommy" and all of these things
that I might not have gitten-- gotten the gift to do
-if we weren't. -Right.
So, um, you know, I count my blessings.
I mean, the pandemic is slowly fading away.
People are getting vaccinated.
It looks like America's moving in the right direction.
And we're here to celebrate your latest role,
Mahalia Jackson. Talk me through this.
I mean, it seems like the most obvious thing now,
but you're playing Mahalia in the Lifetime biopic,
and it's-- everyone's just raving about your performance.
Thank you so much. It...
Um, like, it came out last, last Saturday and Sunday.
It's coming out again this Saturday on Lifetime,
and the response has been crazy.
Like, my heart is so full,
and it hasn't felt this way in a very long time.
Because when you know that your gift is just aligning so well,
like, everything that you're supposed to be doing,
you're doing it.
And to also, you know, acknowledge
-and-and give this Black woman her credit. -Yes.
You know, Mahalia Jackson deserves her story to be told.
And so, I'm really glad that I was given the opportunity
to do that, you know?
People might go like, "Oh, yeah. Mahalia-- she's amazing.
-I love Mahalia Jackson's music." -Yeah.
But-but beyond the music, what she was dealing with
in the country and as an individual, I mean,
that's where it seems like the real story lies.
Come on, Trevor. That was the thing, was,
I think a lot of the world-- and it's okay--
but a lot of the world, including myself,
did not know much about Mahalia Jackson.
And I think while we knew was
that she was the queen of gospel music.
We might have heard "Amazing Grace"
-or "Precious Lord" or "How I Got Over." -Right.
But we don't know much about the person behind it.
And so, to me, I always knew that there was something there
because she's a human being.
Like, everybody has a story, right?
So something's gonna be there.
So once I started doing some research, it was so cool
to discover, like, her desire to want to be a mother,
her going through the Spanish Flu,
having hysterectomy and, you know saying, "You know what?
"I'm not gonna sing at jazz clubs or blues clubs.
I'm gonna stick to gospel."
But the thing that excited me the most was her connection
to Martin Luther King and how she truly is the reason
-for the "I Have a Dream" speech as we know it today. -Right.
Not that it wouldn't be as famous, but as we know it today,
because she told him to say... She told him, "Tell 'em
about the dream, Martin. Tell 'em about the dream."
And he went off script of, you know,
what he had written and did that.
And so, to me, I was like, "Yeah, I want to play that.
Like, please tell the world about that."
That was really fun, so...
It was really great to, like, shed light on her
and what she did in the civil rights movement.
And like you said, like, you know,
how comparable it is to now and relevant it is to now.
You know what-what makes, um,
what makes this so special for me is,
the fact that you aren't just portraying her.
But man, you are singing, Danielle.
At some point, I remember going, "Is this... is this dubbed?
Are they playing it? Are they...?"
But it was... That was you.
All of the music I sang.
That's the one thing I'm learning
to do is hold a little more pride in my work,
-Mm-hmm. -...is because, for a while,
I was very shy when it came to singing.
And it's easy for me to hide
behind a character and show the world
-what I can do. -Right, right, right, right, right.
But if it's me, I'm like, "Oh, gosh," you know.
But, um, so that was so much fun to, like, say,
"Okay, Danielle, you get to embody Mahalia's voice.
-What is that in your body?" -Yes.
And how much more can you give of yourself without holding back
or being scared, or even-even just, like,
just doubting yourself? Like, how much can you give?
Because as an actor, as... what I love so much is
that you do get to give all of yourself.
And you have to. Like, you have... You're of service.
Like, I am a vessel being used to play her.
So, that, to me, was, um, just a gift
to kind of, through the lens of Mahalia,
show the world what I'm capable of doing
because I don't know if Danielle would have been able
-to do that without Mahalia. -Wow.
So, I'm-I'm grateful for that, for sure.
So I am excited to see what happens after, you know,
and I'm gonna try to be a little more bold
and say, "You know what? No, I'm singing this dangerous..."
I'm gonna try to do more, you know, so...
It feels like Danielle Brooks is always looking
for different avenues to express herself as a human being.
What haven't you done that you still dream of doing
where you go like, "This is my, you know, this is the...
this is the project that I'm trying to get to,"
or "This is what I really want to try and do."
Trevor, there's so much that I'm, uh... There's so much.
I've always wanted to show people that I'm capable
of doing more than they expected of me,
especially going to Juilliard.
I think that was what opened my eyes to the fact
that I can do anything, like, sky is the limit.
So, so, for me, I'm... I am first am getting
to be in Peacemaker with John Cena.
And James Gunn is directing and written it,
who's done Guardians of the Galaxy
-and Suicide Squad. -Right.
And so, I'm out here in Vancouver, like,
being the bad butt. I'm trying not to say "bad ass."
But you know all that.
But out here with the guns and stuff.
And-and getting to, like, fight different people and things.
And that's been a lot of fun.
So, like, to show people like, "Yeah, I can do some action."
And, um, but I also want to just continue
to stretch the limitations, people's mindset
on black women, and show them that, you know,
-a person like me can do it all... -Right.
...even if it's, you know, playing someone in--
I don't know-- Australia, whatever that is.
Or different time periods, and-and all of that.
Just kind of stretching that, um,
and letting people know, like, there's more to us.
So, that's-that's the goal.
Well, I'll tell you now. Every project they watch of yours,
that answer will be, um, I think repeated over and over again.
Danielle, thank you so much for joining me again.
Congratulations on an amazing, amazing job that you've done,
and I'm looking forward to the next one.
-Thank you. -Take care.