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The 36-year-old has been nominated for a best
actress Oscar for her debut role in "The United States vs.
Billie Holiday", which looks at the jazz singer's part in the
push for Black civil rights and the outcry caused by her singing
the ballad "Strange Fruit".
Holiday initially performed the protest song about the lynching
of Black people in 1939 at New York City’s first racially
integrated nightclub, Cafe Society.
"I believe that God used this role and Billie Holiday and her
spirit to just make me a little braver," Day told Reuters in an
interview.
"I still will feel a little bit inadequate sometimes and still
feel kind of scared but to just show up in any way ... I tried
to make a practice of that before the movie, but this has pushed
me to do that even more in a way."
Grammy nominee Day said she was still "decompressing" from the
weight of the role, adding she had only seen the film once.
"It was very emotional for me, it was difficult," she said.
"I went through a roller coaster of sadness and hurt and
resentment but also joy."
Day won a Golden Globe for her performance and will compete
against Frances McDormand, Viola Davis, Vanessa Kirby and Carey
Mulligan for best actress at Sunday's Academy Awards.
"I'm very, very grateful because we put a lot of work into this
film," Day said.
"While I’m grateful, I realize there's still a lot we have to do
in representation in this space ... There’s no parsing words,
America is a racist nation so there’s a lot of spaces where we
need to make sure that we're fully represented and that other
marginalized people are fully represented."
(Reporting by Alicia Powell; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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