STEPHANIE DIANI; JACKSON: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY
DANIELLE BROOKS WAS PREPARING TO PLAY MAHALIA JACKSON, THE Queen of Gospel, long before she got the part in Lifetime’s Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (April 3). “I was consciously reading, watching clips, just getting inspired. And that was before reading any script. I was like, ‘I want to be ready to get ready.’” Directed by Kenny Leon, who Brooks calls an “actor’s director” because he makes “sure that everybody’s voices are being heard,” Mahalia follows the course of Jackson’s life, from commercial success to her role in the Civil Rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington. “I appreciate the fact that Martin listened to a Black woman,” Brooks says. “I’ve always been enamored of the relationship between Martin and Mahalia because I feel like it gets ignored a lot.” Brooks credits having a “seat at the table” on a film like Mahalia with her break on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, which she says showed her the impact her work could have on others. “I’m proud to have come from a show that knows what we do really does go beyond the paycheck and beyond getting to buy your mama a house.”