Andra Day Got a Temporary Tattoo for a Movie. Two Years Later, It Hasn't Faded Away (Exclusive)

Andra Day famously took up drinking and smoking and lost 40 lbs. to portray the titular jazz legend and civil rights activist in 2021’s The United States vs. Billie Holiday. 

For her new movie The Deliverance, the actress and singer, 39, was equally gung-ho about throwing herself into her role — even getting the names of her three on-screen children tattooed onto her left forearm. 

The supposed fast-fading ink that was used on her skin hasn’t faded away just yet. “They told me, they were like, ‘This will be gone within nine at maximum 13 months.’ But that was in April or May of 2022.”

“People literally ask me now, they’re like, ‘Oh, you have three kids?’ I’m like, ‘No, girl. These kids don’t even exist!’ Now I'm a fake mom of fake kids,’” she quips. 

The Deliverance producer Tucker Tooley, who also worked with Day on Billie Holiday, says he’s in awe of the star’s dedication. “She’s unparalleled in terms of her commitment,” he says. 

Day plays Ebony Jackson, an alcoholic single mother struggling to support her children and her mother, Alberta (Glenn Close), with whom she has a strained relationship. 

While Ebony grapples with her personal demons, other-worldly demons possess her children, forcing her to seek help from the religious world she had shut out. (The film, which was shot in Pittsburgh, is inspired by the story of an Indiana woman who claimed her children needed an exorcist.)

The movie reunited the “Rise Up” singer with Billie Holiday director Lee Daniels. It was his involvement that convinced the devout Christian to take the role even though she had doubts about the subject matter. 

“I was hesitant that it was dealing with demonic possession,” she says. “I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I’m supposed to be doing this.’ But then I prayed about it and had peace.”

“Just knowing the angle that we wanted to approach it from, I felt so much peace about that. I was like, ‘Yeah, people do need to see — I even need to see — and hear about this imperfect woman, this super flawed woman, these super flawed characters that are just doing the best they can with what they have,” she continues.

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The Grammy-winning singer, who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her first lead role in Billie Holiday, hit another career high in February when she performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in front of a televised audience of millions at the Super Bowl. 

Since then, she has released another album, Cassandra (cherith) and is gearing up to release another movie, Exhibiting Forgiveness, in October.

Even though it’s been nearly a decade since she broke out in 2015 with her hit “Rise Up,” the San Diego native continues to be surprised by the success she has enjoyed. 

As a kid who went to a performing arts high school, Day used to strut around pretending she was in music videos — but she “didn’t imagine” her dreams of being a performer would come true quite like this: “It has happened in a way that I’m like, ‘Whoa.’”

The Deliverance is in theaters Friday, Aug. 16 and streaming on Netflix Friday, Aug. 30.

For more on Andra Day, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.