Making The High Note for Tracee Ellis Ross (Black-ish) must have been a fascinating endeavor. In the film, whose trailer debuted today, the actress portrays a veteran pop singer who desires to chart new paths with a new record and her record company and her management both want her to simply continue belting out the hits on the road for the foreseeable future.
Her assistant, played by Dakota Johnson (The Peanut Butter Falcon), has her own issues with the status quo. She dreams of being a music producer and thus far, has only managed to secure work as a personal assistant to a singer. Perhaps, just perhaps, these two can face their rut and collectively forge a new path to higher success than either ever imagined.
What is so interesting for Ross is she is, as many know, the daughter of singing icon Diana Ross. It is hardly a surprise that she can sing, after all apples rarely fall too far from trees. Combining her innate comedic talent with that born to belt out songs pedigree has us utterly intrigued by the upcoming film that hits theaters this summer (May 8).
Ross is Grace Davis and Johnson is Maggie and even though it is simply a teaser, there is an immediate onscreen chemistry between the two actresses that should bode well for this upcoming comedy/musical drama.
Casting is everything and the third player in this scenario is Ice Cube, who portrays Grace’s manager. Cube tackles the role with such panache, one can tell that the rapper/actor has probably seen his share of music managers. He must have flipped his lid when he got the script and was asked to play the role of manager!
The High Note comes from director Nisha Ganatra, who helmed 2019’s terrific comedy from Mindy Kaling, Late Night (which starred Kaling and Emma Thompson).
Ross spoke to EW about the project and her insight was fascinating.
“In all honesty, none of this is taken from the world I know of being my mom’s child. The only thing is that I always had the dream of being able to sing. But this character was so beautifully and wonderfully written, and the story really has nothing to do with any of the things that I know from my mom’s experience,” she admitted. “Except for the fact that there’s a real humanity to this woman and she’s not a paper-thin quote-unquote diva that the world usually paints larger-than-life women as. She’s a real person. That’s the only connection that I can draw. That a woman who holds a great space in the world is actually a human with a heart, who has fears and disappointments and struggles all on her own.”The High Note also features a stellar supporting cast with Bill Pullman, Eddie Izzard, Zoe Chao, Diplo and Kelvin Harrison Jr.