Exclusive: Kenny Leon On Directing ‘Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia’
Premiering Saturday, April 3 at 8pm/7c only on Lifetime is Mahalia Jackson. Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, starring Tony Award nominee, SAG and Grammy Award-winning actress Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black, Broadway’s The Color Purple) as the iconic gospel legend and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson.
Directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon (Broadway’s A Raisin in the Sun, Fences, Lifetime’s Steel Magnolias), the film also features an impressive list of Broadway stars including Tony nominee Joaquina Kalukango (Slave Play), Jason Dirden (Fences), Olivia Washington (The Butler) and Rob Demery (Lovecraft Country).
Born in New Orleans, Mahalia began singing at an early age and went on to become one of the most revered gospel figures in U.S. history, melding her music with the civil rights movement. Her recording of the song “Move on Up a Little Higher” sold millions of copies, skyrocketing her to international fame and gave her the opportunity to perform in front of a racially integrated audience at the prestigious Carnegie Hall and at John F. Kennedy’s inaugural ball.
An active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement, Jackson sang at numerous rallies, including the March on Washington in 1963 alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in hopes that her music would encourage and inspire racial equality. Jackson’s story will continue to strengthen the need for more stories about Black legends that are often overlooked.
BlackFilmandTV.com spoke with Kenny Leon on his approach to directing this film.
What led you to take on this project?
Kenny Leon: The last time I did something for Lifetime was Steel Magnolias with Queen Latifah and Phylicia Rashad. I was so proud of that production and I said, "I'm not going back to Lifetime unless the story and the project is on that level on that, and it can excite me as much as I was excited about doing Steel Magnolias. So after Broadway shut down March 12 of last year, and I came home on March 14, I realized I hadn't been home in Atlanta with my family for the last 25 years. Like 80% of the time, I'm gone. I'm in New York or LA or somewhere else telling stories. Out of my nervousness about being home and insecurity about what would happen next, and when I would next go back to work, I just started playing Mahalia Jackson every morning for two hours. I would listen to Jackson because I grew up Southern, and Christian and, and that music bought me comfort. So for two hours, I listened to Mahalia and I would pray for an hour, then I recently learned about meditation. I would meditate for about an hour and then I would ride my peloton bike for about 30-45 minutes every day. I wanted to get to a routine. So that was my routine for the first seven weeks of the pandemic.
Then that seventh week, I got a call from Tanya Lopez from Lifetime and Robin Roberts from Good Morning America offering me the Mahalia Jackson story. I said, "Did you guys know that I've been listening to Mahalia Jackson every day, every single day, first thing in the morning for two hours?" They said, "No, we had no idea. We just want to get you back at Lifetime." Robin Roberts was like, "I've been a fan forever. And I've seen the Broadway work and we would love for you to do this story." The rest is history. I was like, "I got to do it.”
I called my mom who's a Southern Christian. She's a singer. I said, "Mom, I've been offered this, but I don't know if I can. I got a busy schedule.” She said, “You ain't got no choice, baby, you got to do it. Let the other stuff go, you got to tell them Mahalia Jackson's story because telling it from your point of view, from your eyes is a unique way to see this story. And I trust you." That responsibility is huge. A lot of people are going to be looking at this to see if it's told in a very authentic way. So that's how I came about the position and I'm excited to do it. I think that is some of my best work ever.
The first call I made was to Danielle Brooks because we had done Shakespeare in the Park with Much Ado About Nothing in Central Park in New York. She's an actress that always stands in truth, not beside truth or next to truth. I know her to be that accurate. She was singing a lot in the Shakespearean play. I was like, "Wow, she has a really great voice." Then I met her mom who was a Southern Bishop in South Carolina. Danielle came from the same upbringing that I did. We come from the church. We come from the community, and we want our stories to impact lives. We want to have the opportunity to tell these stories. Sometimes these biopics missed the mark because sometimes they don't take into consideration if the storyteller is from the region, or if that principle we're talking about is from region. So I'm a storyteller that grew up poor, that grew up Southern, that grew up Christian. I think this is one of those stories that my history and my background matched the need for this story to be told.
How much research went into the other characters in the film, from the pianist to the lovers?
Kenny Leon: Yeah, we looked into all that. We read so much stuff. We looked at so many things. We looked at Studs Terkel's interviews with her. We looked at her television interviews. We wanted to be authentic with where she was coming from as a person, as a grounded person. It's one thing for people to say, "Oh, I'm spiritual," but it's another thing to see it. We wanted it just to see her see homeless people in the home and the breadline and take them home and feed them. I want to see her see a man on the street and say “Here you go. Take the dollar baby even though I don't have anything." I want us to realize that her relationship with people like Dr. King was a real relationship. We got to tell this story in a very intimate way in terms of what a friend is and when a friend shows up for you.
I wanted to represent some of the doubt. Dr. King had some doubts and insecurity and she did too, and how they helped each other navigate this world. Her relationship between Studs Terkel, a white guy who was almost an atheist and and a spiritual woman who was black, and how they formed the friendship and helped each other. I wanted to show how she didn't throw her first husband away. We knew that he was a part of her life. Just because he wasn't still romantically involved with her doesn't mean that he can't be a friend. So it is a lesson in that just the way she treated people; the way she took her best friend and gave her the beauty shop. So those kind of sacrifices i thought was things that we can do.
We try to find every woman quality in her and take out those segments of her story and show the world that but she had many relationships. She was really close with Louis Armstrong. We didn't go into that relationship. We did show that she did perform at the Newtown Jazz Festival, where he performed. She was singing gospel music at secular events. And then we wanted to show that she talked about not belonging at Carnegie Hall, but to see her go into a mostly white audience and sing at Carnegie Hall. She's a woman died with $4 million in the bank, but the thing I wanted people to walk away with is that last scene to say that,"I've learned that my gift is not just my singing, and my gift is learning that I can use what I say, to touch people and to change their lives, just like Mildred, and my lifelong friends. I can't be here by myself, she helped me and her passion is the piano. But many of you have other gifts to give life." I framed the movie in a way, where you know that they get it, and people gathering because they hear this unique voice. And it ends with people gathering because of this unique voice. But the difference is that the end has more power and more meaning and more understanding. It was a great experience