Rainey Qualley Talks Musical Revenge in The Devil and the Daylong Brothers
This interview was originally posted on Film Obsessive.
In a year of nontraditional movie musicals like Emilia Pérez and The End, another film enters the mix. The Devil and the Daylong Brothers, on paper, sounds like what you would expect from a Western tale of revenge. Three brothers (Brendan Bradley, Nican Robinson, & Jordon Bolden) are in search of their father (Keith Carradine) who sold his children’s souls to the devil in exchange for his own personal gain. Where The Devil and the Daylong Brothers differs from the traditional revenge tale is that the characters break out into song and dance. In the brothers’ journey, they track down Frankie, played by Rainey Qualley, who holds a key to finding their father.
Ahead of the film’s theatrical release, Rainey Qualley sat down with Film Obsessive’s Tina Kakadelis to talk combing her singing career with her love of acting, shooting a movie musical in 14 days, and the desperation that drives her character.
The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Film Obsessive: Hey, Rainey! I’m just going to jump in and ask what made you interested in joining The Devil and the Daylong Brothers?
Rainey Qualley: I read the script, and it was…it’s still one of my favorite scripts that I’ve ever read. I just loved it. It had such a specific tone and all the language in the dialogue was so poetic. I was really excited that I got the chance to tape for it. Anytime I can audition for a film that either has a southern accent or I have to sing for, I feel like I have a little bit of a leg up because I grew up in the South and I also sing (laughs). This project happened to have both of those elements, in addition to being a script that I really loved.
After I sent my tape, I was emailing my manager every day, like, is there any feedback? What’s going on? Did I get this role? I was so happy that I ended up booking it.
Is this your first time combining music and acting in a full-on musical setting?
Yeah, I have a whole separate career as a musical artist, but this is the first musical movie that I’ve done. I grew up doing plays and musicals.I was a theater dork a little bit, but this is my first cinematic musical.
As someone who does their own music, did you feel like there was a difference in performing your own music and the music for the film?
I think it did take a little bit of adjusting, but the direction that I was given by both Brandon [McCormick], the director, and Nicholas [Kirk], who wrote and helped to record all the songs, was so helpful in guiding us toward, as you said, less of a performance as Rainsford and more like sliding into the character and helping amplify what’s happening on screen. Obviously, when you’re in the recording studio just singing the song, listening to it, you don’t have the image of what’s taking place in the scene. Being able to pair those things together and having their guidance was so helpful.
What was the order that you did it? Did you record the songs first and then go rehearse and choreograph on set? Did you get to sing live on the set?
We shot in Georgia, outside of Atlanta. We got there, I guess, about a week early and recorded all the songs. We were able to do a little bit of rehearsing for the actual project, which was such a luxury. Most of the time, you’re sort of thrust into these projects and you meet your scene partner and you’re like, okay, let’s make a movie (laughs).
We got to record the songs and then went into shooting the actual film afterward. All the songs within the movie, the days we shot those scenes, it felt like shooting a music video in a lot of ways. We had the track already. You don’t have to belt the song, but if you’re singing along a little bit when you’re recording the movie part of it, you get a better look. We sang along, but they weren’t capturing the live audio as we sang.
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers is a revenge road trip movie, you could say. It’s a story that’s been told probably hundreds of times, but I don’t think ever in a musical Southern Gothic style. What do you feel the songs add to this version of a revenge story?
Like with most musicals, the music sort of takes place when the emotion is amplified more than you could articulate with regular language. I think, in that sense, it’s like any traditional musical. But, I mean, I’ve never seen this style of musical before. The dark, twisted, bloody revenge musical that it is.
Definitely. It’s interesting because you have the traditional sort of Western imagery of guys out for revenge, but then you have musicals, which isn’t usually thought of in a macho setting. I love that those two kind of played off each other.
Yeah, yeah!
Your character, Frankie, sold her soul in an attempt to escape a very bad situation. Can you talk a little about the mindset you got into for that decision in Frankie’s life?
I think ultimately it’s an act of desperation, which is a very human thing. Most people do the worst things they do out of desperation. I think, like with any sort of acting, you have to tap into any similar thing you have or an imagined thing that you can relate to, and then bring that to the character.
Photo Credit Jason Fobart
Like we said, there’s a heaviness to her story, but then you also kind of get to have a little fun, I would say, by being a Southern Gothic femme fatale almost. Can you talk about shifting between those two very distinct vibes for your character?
This movie was so grandiose and so fun for me. Frankie is a character I haven’t gotten to play before. So different from the sort of roles that I’m typically cast in. It was so fun to get to play around with it and have the freedom to try stuff.
I watched the movie recently before doing all this press and it’s so fun. Everybody on the set had a good time. It was a very positive experience all around, and I think you can sort of feel that in watching it.
Definitely! How long was the shoot for the film?
It was really short. I think it was only 14 shooting days or something like that. And then the recording.
That feels crazy! One of the main themes of the film is the idea of reckoning versus redemption. I was kind of curious how you feel that Frankie sees those ideas, and then how you personally see those ideas.
That’s a complicated question. I feel like I don’t have a very clear answer for that. I’m not sure what my own personal view is or what Frankie’s view would be necessarily, but I guess throughout the movie, she has this lingering hope for redemption. Ultimately, when she realizes it’s not going to happen, she begs for her end in a way. The ideas are very intertwined in the climax of my character, and ultimately her undoing.
My last question for you is far easier! This has been a year of nontraditional original musicals, which is so great to see as a fellow musical theater nerd. In your dream world, what genre of movie or music would you like to do as a musical? Do you want to write your own musical?
I’d love to do more. I don’t know if I’m necessarily capable of writing my own per se, but I love acting and music separately and together. Any opportunity I have to do either or both, I’m very interested in.
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers is in select theaters and available on digital January 31
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