Rosalind Eleazar had not sung in about 20 years when Chris Rock cast her as Misty Green, an Emmy-winning actress and singer whose career has gone cold. So she went back to lessons.
"I sang when I was young, and I hadn't sung in about 20 years, so I was lucky," Eleazar said during a virtual press conference Nov. 6. "That's one of the great things about actors, I got to have singing lessons again."
The voice audiences hear in "Misty Green" is a blend. Eleazar said she sang live on set, recorded in a studio and worked with a vocal coach, and the final mix adds other vocals. "There are also additional vocals on it, and I guess they put it all together," she said. "But it was a pretty exposing experience."
Those songs carry weight in a film that refuses to make Misty easy to love. Rock wrote, directed and co-stars in the A24 release, his first feature as a director since 2014's "Top Five." It premiered Sept. 12 in the Gala Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival, where Eleazar received the TIFF Tribute Performer Award. It opened in U.S. theaters Oct. 9 and begins streaming on Netflix in the U.S. on Nov. 9.
"There's one thing I can never live without, and that's music," Eleazar said. "It was very important for me in the movie that those moments felt like seeing the inner Misty."
A star the industry used up
Misty has worked since she was 9. Eleazar, the British actor best known as MI5 agent Louisa Guy on "Slow Horses," sees her as someone the business consumed and taught to consume in return.
"I think she's railing against an industry that she feels treats her like a commodity and a product, and then, in turn, she does the same," Eleazar said. "She's very transactional in her behavior, and her lack of self-respect is evident throughout the film."
She said Misty's real question is whether she is enough without her talent. Asked whether Misty's belief that she is a star keeps her going or destroys her, Eleazar did not hesitate. "I think it's what destroys her," she said. "When you attach yourself to external validation, it is never going to work in your favor."
Her favorite example is the audition scene where a receptionist does not recognize Misty. "She's like, 'Misty Green!' Oh, you've got to love her," Eleazar said.
That is what drew her to Rock's script. "We have seen many stories where we so want our main character to end heroically, and this story wasn't that," she said. "It was honest, very sharp, and ugly in many ways, and brutal."
She called Rock "the most amazing collaborator." "He really believed in me, I know it sounds a bit woo-woo, but he did, and he trusted me, and he let me find her, which is a gift for the actor," she said.
The line that gets a laugh
One line has audiences laughing: Misty saying she's too Black to be with Leo. Eleazar said she discussed it at length with Rock and sees it as Misty's own way of explaining rejection.
"When you don't get a part, you come up with a set of reasons as to why you haven't got that part," she said. "Usually it's got nothing to do with your audition." She called it "more of a Misty-ism, let's say, of going, 'I'm not white enough, and I'm not Black enough.'"
Eleazar was candid about auditioning herself. "I wish I could say I love auditioning, but that's not the case. I really don't like it," she said. She misses the room, where a director can redirect an actor, and described self-tapes with one scene, no script and, in a British winter, a very short window of daylight. "If you're in the U.K., when it gets dark at 4 p.m., you've got a very short window," she said.
Driver, Kaluuya, Kendrick and an ending that isn't tidy
The cast around her includes Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya as Misty's brother, Anna Kendrick and Topher Grace. "I just had to pinch myself every time," Eleazar said. She described Kendrick's energy as "buoyant" and Kaluuya as "incredibly raw and piercing."
She builds the character at home but leaves the moment on set unplanned. "My favorite bit is to just play with another actor, and be affected by them, and I affect them," she said.
Many viewers want a happier ending for Misty. Eleazar sees the one she gets as partly happy: not a comeback, but a steadier life for someone who struggles with addiction and her mental health.
"She frustrates a lot of people because she's so self-destructive, and for me that was the pain of it, the pain that someone is wrecking themselves," she said. "I've seen people wreck themselves and wreck the talent that they've been given. It's just one of the most painful things to witness."
For Eleazar, the film is bigger than a Hollywood satire. "It is also about someone reckoning with ambition, and how far you're going to go to feel valued," she said.
"Misty Green" is rated R and runs 103 minutes. It streams on Netflix in the U.S. beginning Nov. 9.
Quick answers
Did Rosalind Eleazar do her own singing in "Misty Green"? Yes, partly. Eleazar sang live on set and in a studio, and the final tracks blend her voice with additional vocals.
When does "Misty Green" stream on Netflix? The A24 film begins streaming on Netflix in the U.S. on Nov. 9, 2026, after opening in theaters Oct. 9.
Who is in the cast of "Misty Green"? Rosalind Eleazar stars as Misty, with Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace and writer-director Chris Rock.
