If you haven’t seen the trailer for Lee Daniels latest project The Deliverance yet, just know you’ll see Andra Day and Glenn Close like you’ve never seen them before.
Source: Courtesy / Netflix
Inspired by a true story, the film stars Andra Day as Ebony Jackson, a struggling single mother fighting her personal demons when she moves her family into a new home (their third in a year) for a fresh start. But when strange occurrences inside the home raise the suspicions of Child Protective Services and threaten to tear the family apart, Ebony soon finds herself locked in a battle for her life and the souls of her children.
Check out the trailer below:
Remember we told you it would be Andra and Glenn unlike we’ve ever seen them before!
The pair play a mother daughter duo in The Deliverance who have a history of abuse, addiction and poverty that continues to plague their relationship. Once the family is attacked by sinister forces, everyone in the home becomes vulnerable. We were particularly struck by the ugly comments that Ebony and Alberta exchange and wanted to know about how that played into Day and Close’s on set interactions.
“I think it was actually easy to get back to the positive side of things with her,” Andra Day told BOSSIP.
“We’re just acting,” Glenn Close agreed.
“Of course we were paying attention to our characters, doing the work, listening to our director, but we really liked each other,” Day added. “Everyone really loved each other on set, so half the time we’d be cussing each other out and going off and then cracking up laughing at the brazenness of the characters and their relationship. So it was kind of like we were watching a show while performing it at the same time. Also like it’s easy, Glenn is — I’m enamored by — I’m a huge huge fan of her work. Also Cruella de Vil is one of my heroes, but also there is a youthful fun, like homegirl-ness to her too. So we would be cracking up laughing, kiki’ing on set. It was easy, it was very easy.”
Source: AARON RICKETTS / Netflix
And while their offscreen experience was quite joyful, both Close and Day admitted the trauma that is woven into Ebony and Alberta’s experiences makes them extremely vulnerable to the darkness that lurks in their home.
“I think they happen to move into a space that will that will attack them,” Close told BOSSIP. “I think what’s interesting is that Alberta is the one who has cleaned up her act as much as she is at this moment, but she was an abuser herself. She was abused, becomes an abuser, it’s that cycle…
“I think people who have holes in them somewhere are vulnerable to whatever will fill that space,” she continued. “I think this story and the incredible character that Andra played is somebody who fills that space finally with something that helps her survive.”
“I think what opens the doorway is just… when we’re just surviving and we’re not actually healing,” Day added. “I think that therapy, dealing with generational trauma, all these things, this is something that a new generation is ushering in, making it a part of the common conversation now. We kind of started with my generation, but even prior to that, you just didn’t talk about it, you just survived and you got along and I think that unresolved trauma, like those unhealed parts of you, like she said, there’s holes everywhere so you’re allowing a lot of things in and so I think they were incredibly vulnerable for that reason and it was easy.”
Source: AARON RICKETTS / Netflix
One of our favorite parts about the film was watching both Andra Day and Glenn Close’s transformation for their role. Close’s character Alberta is a real departure from any other role she’s held in the past. She told us the biggest thing she had to do was just trust director Lee Daniels’ vision.
“For me it was a real journey finding Alberta and I was so led into that journey and through that journey by Lee [Daniels] who had such a strong idea in his head,” Close recalled. “He kept saying to me, ‘Every black person knows somebody like Alberta, not every white person does but every Black person does,’ and so I said, ‘OK I’m gonna totally trust you and you lead me into her.’ I found her when I found that incredible freedom of feeling that whatever I put in my body is only to make me sexy, and I feel sexy all the time, that was kind of a new thought for me. It was really freeing, and then to go into the transformation you’re probably thinking about — Andra, we have very active imaginations. I think to put yourself there and just go for it, it takes courage. I think actors are very courageous. A lot of courage was needed from all of us to make this movie.”
“I think we were all stepping in to people that we were like, ‘Wow they’re different.’ Which is what you want to do but again, I’m still newer to this. I think actors have a lot of courage.I think we’re a little nuts. It really takes so much. You have to delve so deep personally to get into characters like these and then you’re also incredibly altered by the time you’re done, so you’re always trying to get your equilibrium. But it was super fun. Like she said, she has a really active imagination, so do I. I never want to discount the fact that I had so much fun on set working with her, working with these women, working with Lee, I love it.”
The Deliverance is currently in select theaters and begins streaming on Netflix August 30