Andra Day moves with intention, so she prays before accepting any role. She did that before taking on The Deliverance and ahead of her newest film, Exhibiting Forgiveness.
“Any time I get an offer for something, the first thing I have to do is definitely take it into prayer. … I just need to make sure that … everything has to be done with intention and with purpose,” she tells ABC Audio. “My purpose is for people to see God through my life and aspects of God.”
In addition to being fan of director Titus Kaphar‘s art, Andra was drawn to the film because she says it allows people to see God through the concept of forgiveness.
“I think what drew me about this story was that … we know we’re supposed to forgive. We know that it’s the right thing to do. We know it’s the healthy thing to do, whether you are a spiritual person or not, but we often forget that you have to have a fair amount of grace when it comes to forgiveness, because it’s a really, really hard battle,” she says.
“You have to continuously choose it because you may not feel like it all the time,” Andra continues. “So I loved that people would be able to see that in and through this movie.”
Exhibiting Forgiveness tells the story of an admired painter named Tarrell whose path to success is derailed by the return of his father, La’Ron, a recovering addict. Andra plays Tarrell’s wife, Aisha, who happens to be an accomplished singer.
“I didn’t necessarily need singing to be a part of it. But once I saw that … I was like, ‘Great, I’ll be able to definitely bring some truth to this,'” Andra says. “I was actually really looking forward to playing her.”
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