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ACADEMY AWARD WINNING SINGER-ACTOR JENNIFER HUDSON OPENS UP ON “CBS SUNDAY MORNING” ABOUT HER FRIENDSHIP WITH ARETHA FRANKLIN, PORTRAYING THE ICON IN A NEW MOVIE AND MORE
Academy Award and Grammy winner Jennifer Hudson portrays the late music icon Aretha Franklin in the new film “Respect,” set to hit theaters August 13. It’s a role Hudson was handpicked to play by Franklin, long before she died in 2018. Hudson opens up about her friendship with Franklin, how she portrayed the legend and how she drew on her own life to enrich the performances in an interview with Kelefa Sanneh for CBS SUNDAY MORNING to be broadcast Sunday, August 1 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.
As the story goes, Franklin was so impressed with Hudson’s 2006 performance in “Dreamgirls,” that she wanted the former “American Idol” contestant to play her when the time came.
“The very first thing Aretha said to me when we sat down was, ‘You’re going to win an Oscar for playing me, right?’” Hudson says. “I didn’t know what to say.”
Hudson says they stayed in touch and one day eight years later, Franklin called to say she had picked Hudson to play her. They would talk weekly up until Franklin died, Hudson says.
Sanneh also travels with Hudson to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where she visited for the first time the Fame Recording Studios, hallowed ground where many believe Franklin learned to use her powerful voice that led her to become a worldwide phenomenon.
“You can feel, like, the magic I feel like that’s taken place,” Hudson tells Sanneh at Fame Recording Studios. “Look, and Aretha over here. Okay, hold on. Oh my God. Okay.”
“Respect” chronicles the joys and sorrows of Franklin’s life. Like Franklin, Hudson has suffered some family tragedies. She tells Sanneh she drew from those experiences and used her own grief to help tell Franklin’s story.
“There’s no way I would have been able to deliver this or tell this in such an honest, vulnerable way to those depths without my own life experience to channel it from,” Hudson says.
Hudson talks with Sanneh about her career, her thoughts about Franklin’s life and her talks with some of the musicians who played with Franklin at the Fame Recording Studios.
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