STACK #195 Jan 2021

FILM FEATURE

visit stack.com.au

As the stylish Grace Davis in The High Note , Tracee Ellis Ross clearly borrows from the likes of Mariah Carey, J-Lo and Cher – with just a dash of her own mother, Diana. Asked how her mum reacted to the film, Ross says, “I finally shared the music with her after the first month. I had all the music on my phone and I picked her up and we sat in the driveway in my car, and she turned to me with tears running down her face and said, ‘Finally!’” Taking that as the ultimate seal of approval, she adds, “It didn’t occur to me until much later that audiences might feel my role was based on my mom. I lived as my mom’s daughter for so long, that the only place where it was difficult was facing my own fear of being compared to her and hoping that my voice was not only not bad but that I could pull off playing somebody who had to be considered a longtime icon; a woman who had decades of hits. Like, I had to have an ease on stage with holding a microphone that I don’t actually have in my life.”

When Golden Globe-winning actressTracee Ellis Ross – the daughter of music legend Diana Ross – was asked to play an ageing music diva in The High Note , she was naturally terrified. Words Gill Pringle D aunted by her mother Diana’s legacy, Tracee Ellis Ross’s own singing was reserved strictly for the shower, and

she get to choose herself and love herself but allows her secret to come forward and that Maggie gets to sit in the chair that she wants to sit in that is not usually inhabited by a woman.” With Ross’s beautiful voice front and centre – and also with the film’s signature song, Love Myself, now serving as her debut single – we cannot help but ask why she has hidden her own vocal talents for so long. “Because I was terrified! ” she says, letting loose a long throaty laugh, “It was a childhood dream that somehow turned into this big scary thing. The longer you wait to do something, the bigger the monster becomes.

certainly not for public consumption, until now. Yet, despite all her reservations, she couldn’t resist taking on the role of a fading music icon in The High Note , co-starring Dakota Johnson as her plucky assistant, Maggie, who harbours dreams of becoming a rare female producer in a male-dominated industry. Stepping into the formidable shoes of The High Note ’s Grace Davis, a woman who finds herself sidelined by the ageist music biz, Ross tackled the role with sincerity.

judgement. But what I discovered, which was the most exciting part of this, both through Grace and through my own journey, is this arc of how at a certain point it doesn’t matter what people think. It doesn’t even matter what you think really, it’s the desire and the dream that’s really the point, and letting that voice come out.

“I felt really honoured to play a woman who is my age and yet not telling the story as me having an issue with that; to actually be kinda loving it,” she tells STACK during a chat over Zoom. “That was a big part of what drew me to the role – the overall message that even at her age, it is never too late to continue to pursue your dream and to become more of yourself. It was also thrilling to be telling a story with two female leads whose stories were not about them in context to men but instead about them in context to themselves, and the fact they both supported each other. “I loved that the moral of this story is not about riding off with the man in shining armour but, instead, the moral is that she loves herself. Not only does

“It was an honest fear. My mother being Diana Ross – it’s big shoes to fill; an

international beloved icon. I worried about the comparison and the

It was a childhood dream that somehow turned into this big scary thing

“So the singing is exactly like other aspects of my life and career, that it’s not about trying to sound like someone else or be like someone else, but instead, how can you tell the truth? That was the revelation for me in the singing, that there really was nothing to be afraid of because the only hard work was get- ting out of my own way and letting my voice out.” Ross adds that the most remarkable thing was that The High Note ’s director, Nisha Ganatra ( Late Night ), cast her without ever having heard her sing. “They had no idea if I could sing! I guess they figured, in a worst-case scenario, they could cast me and put someone else’s voice in there. So it was a treat and surprise to everybody – least of all me."

• The High Note is out on Jan 13

16 JANUARY 2021

jbhifi.com.au