Andra Day and Steven Yeun gave two of the most impactful performances of the year.
The first-time Academy Award nominees discuss the whirlwind experience of making their critically-acclaimed films in a virtual Academy Greenroom chat shared exclusively with PEOPLE. They get deep about their nominated roles, ahead of Sunday night’s awards show.
Day, 36, is up for Best Actress in her debut feature role, portraying the titular jazz legend and civil rights icon icon inThe United States vs. Billie Holiday. “I always say, ‘Billie Holiday was a 2021 person living in the 30s, 40s and 50s,” she explains.
“Maybe she just knows what no one else knows,” Day adds. “And I think she also knows and is willing to speak about what no one else is willing to admit … I think it was just the pain of a Black queer woman saying, ‘I want to live freely. And I realize it’s gonna probably cost me my life, but I’m willing to do it anyways.'”
She previously told PEOPLE that she thought she “was retired” from acting, as shewasn’t too confident in her performance. “I truly was definitely out of my depth the entire time,” she said.
Andra Day inThe United States vs. Billie Holiday.Paramount Pictures
Josh Ethan Johnson
“I would have the thought, in my mind, that maybe they’re just settling because they realized they can’t get any better from me. Or that’s the best they’re going to get, and I’m already here,” the three-time Grammy nominee added. “So there was always that underlying thought that they’re just accommodating me right now.”
Yeun, 37, landed a Best Actor nomination for his performance in the awards season darlingMinari, in which he plays the patriarch of a Korean-American family seeking the American Dream after relocating to a farm in Arkansas.
Set in the ’80s, he found similarities in his own family’s story. “I had to reconcile with the way that I understood my parents’ generation, because I was talking about them,” Yeun says of the role.
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“It hadn’t been really humanized,” he continues. “I think a lot of portrayals about them are usually embedded in a little bit of shame. It’s not shameful of them, it’s just more like the concept of a first-generation immigrant for a second-generation kid is like this weird gate you gotta pass through.”
He recentlyexplained the personal complexitiesof the film to PEOPLE. “I had to contend with how I ultimately viewed my parents,” Yeun said. “Were they real people to me? Or were they just kind of constructs? That was painful and difficult.”
The 93rd Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, April 25 starting at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC.
source: people.com
