In finding her voice, Bingham has come to embody the sad glamour of the era, and she shines as Maitland.
“They make me look so good! All those colors!” she exclaims. “They put me in beautiful reds and ambers and golds — I love my show makeup. There’s nothing like putting on those clothes and walking onto that set. None of us can really know what ‘that time’ felt like, but it really puts me there. The great thing is Daughter is not a specific Bessie Smith or Ethel Waters or Josephine Baker — she’s all of these women. It’s exciting for me to piece all of these women together [and] put them into daughter; [I] put the clothes on and I became something else. Once it comes together, it’s so special.”
She acknowledges that her myriad of professional endeavors makes a personal life something of a lesser priority. With her music career in full-swing and her starring role on “Boardwalk Empire,” Bingham is staying focused. “My career has always been my number one. My friends have always known me to be very driven with that,” she explains — while adding, “I have really solid friends that know if I get lost for a week or so it’s not because I don’t love them.
“As far as relationships go, I’ve worked too hard to give it up for a couple of blind dates or whatever!” she adds. “I don’t think that it necessarily spoils things. But my career has always been the thing that I’ve loved the most. It gives me the most satisfaction. If the right person comes along, then they do. But right now my main focus is work.”
