Ravinia 2019, Issue 3, Week 6

“ Chicago people allow me to be Jennifer from the South Side. I do what I do, but when I come home, I want to be a Chicagoan. of Soul did share her love, selecting Hudson to portray her in the film before her death last year. (Hudson sang in tribute at her funeral.) She still cannot fully process this. After Dreamgirls , she said, she was asked constantly what she could do to top winning an Oscar on her first film in a role that huge. In terms of dream projects and challenging roles, she would respond that the thing that would come closest would be to play Aretha Franklin. “For that to be actually happening,” she began; overwhelmed, she couldn’t finish the sentence. The two spoke many times over the decade, Hudson said—“weekly, actu- ally.” They first met following Hudson’s Dreamgirls triumph, when it was floated that Hudson should one day portray Franklin on- screen. Hudson recalled with a laugh, “She said, ‘You’re going to win an Oscar for playing me, right?’ I said that I would do my best. And she said, ‘Are you shy?’ I said, ‘I am when I’m talking to Aretha Franklin.’ ” Hudson’s own life sto- ry would make for a truly inspirational biopic. But who else could play her? “Maybe one day that sto- ry will be told,” she said. “I haven’t had a chance to think about it.” But when reflecting on her career and her lifelong passion for singing, she offers what would be a good title: “There was no Plan B.” “I come from a host of singers,” she continued. “I was pretty much born into it. My grand- mother was the soloist in church choirs. She always said she never wanted to be famous because you had to sing when you didn’t feel like it. I told her, ‘Some- times, Grandma, I can appreciate that.’ ” Hudson grew up in Chicago’s En- glewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Her mother, a single parent, raised Jennifer, sister Julia, and broth- er Jason. “My grandmother made it a point to make us all sing,” Hudson said. “I was serious about it; my brother and my sister weren’t as into music as I was. We pretty much grew up listening to music in church. We weren’t allowed to listen to secular music. I heard regular music through our neighbors and from when my grandfather took us out into the streets. And I watched Soul Train on television. I put a blanket on the floor and that would be my stage. I would dance in front of the TV and sing along with a brush as my microphone. To this day, I listen to what is being played in stores and restaurants because I love all music; I am always listening.” And yet, Hudson’s first solo, per- formed in church at the age of 7, did not go well, she remembered. “I forgot the words; the congregation had to help me out.” A family event helped Hudson conquer her stage fright and gave her the confidence to perform. “It was my great-grandmother’s 90th birthday in Mississippi,” she recalled. “All the kids could do whatever they wanted in trib- ute to her. I wanted to sing. Everybody was laughing because they had no idea I could sing. By the time I finished, the same people laughing at me stood up. That’s when I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ ” Hudson has made the most of all her opportunities, starting with her cruise ship stint. Watching her American Idol audition (it’s available on YouTube), one is struck by judge Randy Jackson’s condescending crack about expecting “something better than a cruise ship performance.” “That surprised me too,” Hudson said. “I’m proud of everything I do, and it wasn’t until then that every- thing started to change and happen for me. I recommend it for any performer, especially when you’re young. Randy was wrong, but he knows that now.” Her momentous Idol audition was held at the Kodak (now the Dolby) Theater, where she would later return as an Academy Award nominee and later, as an Oscar ceremony performer. Her most vivid Oscar memory: “When my category came up, all I could hear was my mother’s voice in my head saying, ‘You’re a winner just getting this far.’ When [presenter] George Clooney said my name, I didn’t move. I thought it was all in my head and that nobody heard my name but me.” Hudson is quick to add that she received another superla- tive that night—she was named “Worst Dressed.” But of all her accolades, the one that means more to her than Academy JULY 1 – JULY 14, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 23