The High Note movie: Tracee Ellis Ross on finally finding her voice

When you’re the daughter of a music icon, people naturally expect you to follow her path. But it took Tracee Ellis Ross 47 years to find her voice.

There were many things that drew Tracee Ellis Ross to her character in The High Note, but chief among them is the opportunity to sing.

You’d think the daughter of the legendary Diana Ross would have been belting her vocal chords in public long ago, but it took 47 years to happen.

“I love that this is a movie that allowed me to sing and to face one of my biggest fears and biggest dreams,” Ross told news.com.au. “I knew that if I could get it, they would let me sing.

“The funny part is, that they didn’t know if I could sing or not. I think they just thought, ‘it’s OK, we’ll do some movie magic if she can’t sing’. I knew I could sing, but they did not.”

Ross plays a character named Grace Davis, a renowned R&B singer who still sells out concerts but whose label is more interested in her doing best of compilations and Christmas albums than encouraging her try to new material.

Naturally, it’s a part that required her to stretch her lungs on screen and in the recording studio. The High Note also gave Ross her debut single, Love Myself.

Tracee Ellis Ross with Ice Cube in The High Note.

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But given her lineage, why did it take so long for her to step up to a microphone?

“I think some of it was unconscious,” Ross explained. “The longer you wait to do something, the scarier it gets. I also think the older you get, the more you know how real fears are.

“You actually could be taken down. People could say you were awful. It’s sort of like the taller you get, the scarier it is to fall.”

Ross is not awful. Her vocals are strong and when her character is called to sing on stage, her presence is commanding. It’s clear Ross, and her character Grace, feels completely at ease.

“I loved the recording process, but I love being on stage more. I loved the live performance scenes that we did,” she said. “Although they were background actors in the audience and they hadn’t actually purchased tickets, it was still a stadium filled with people and I enjoyed being on stage.”

It was also an experience she was keen to share with her mother.

“She cried, it was really sweet,” Ross recounted of the moment she showed her mum. “She looked at me and said, ‘finally’. It was a special moment because I’m 47 and it took a long time to get into the studio.

“I know she knew I could sing and wanted that for me ages ago. It was wonderful to share myself with my mum.”

Tracee Ellis Ross with mother Diana Ross, half-brother Evan Ross and sister-in-law Ashlee Simpson. Picture: Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic/Getty Images

There are obvious parallels between Grace and Ross’ mother, and you might have expected Ross to have drawn from Diana’s experiences in forming the character, but she didn’t.

Ross said her mother didn’t give her any special insight and that she herself hadn’t grown up in the industry despite being the progeny of a musical legend and Bob Ellis, who managed artists including Billy Preston, Chaka Khan and Meatloaf.

“I didn’t really grow up in the industry. I grew up with a mum who was an iconic singer. I grew up as a kid.

“I say this, and I really mean it, but my youth had nothing to do with my mum other than the fact she was an iconic singer. So, I didn’t really mirror Grace after her or something I knew of my mother.”

If anything, Ross went on to explain, what her family’s experiences brought to the role was a humanity to Grace, because “it was a humanity that I know”.

It’s key to what makes the character relatable. Ross’s performance balances out Grace’s diva antics, self-involved life philosophy and generally unfiltered way with words with empathy and vulnerability.

“That’s what I loved about her,” Ross said. “Because I feel like that’s what happens in real life. You have vulnerabilities and they don’t come across like vulnerabilities.

“The fact that she was this human being, she was a person who had fears and insecurities and she wasn’t perfect. She didn’t do everything quite the right way but you got to feel and experience and know what was underneath, and the story behind it.”

Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson in The High Note.

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Directed by Nisha Ganatra (Late Night), Ross, a four-time Emmy nominee for Black-ish, co-stars with Dakota Johnson, who plays Maggie, Grace’s hardworking assistant with aspirations of producing.

It has an easy rom-com vibe and while there is a romance subplot in the film between Maggie and a character played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. (and Grace’s comical dalliances with an unseen Michael B. Jordan), it’s far from the focus. Rather, it’s a film about two women’s ambitions.

It’s what attracted Ross to the film, and what will resonate with many women.

“I love that it was a story about two women who were on parallel paths that weren’t against each other, but for each other.

“I love that it was about two women who were pushing up against the world’s idea of who they should be.

“I loved that this was a story about two women that was not about them pursuing a man but instead it’s about their inner lives.”

The High Note is in cinemas from today

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