Jennifer Hudson demands Respect as Aretha Franklin in new biopic trailer
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Jennifer Hudson performed a cover of Aretha Franklin’s “Young, Gifted And Black” at Sunday night’s BET Awards, paving the way for the first trailer for Respect, in which she plays the legendary songwriter.
Beginning with Franklin’s childhood lighting up her church choir, the biopic goes on to chronicle the singer’s years of struggle before hitting it big, both personally and professionally. Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Tituss Burgess, Marc Maron, and Mary J. Blige co-star as a few of the key figures in Franklin’s life.
Watch the trailer, in which Hudson’s Franklin belts out the title track both onstage and in the rehearsal room, below.
Respect comes from a pair of theater veterans: Writer Tracey Scott Wilson is an acclaimed playwright who has also worked on The Americans and Fosse/Verdon, while Liesl Tommy is a Tony-nominated director with credits on Jessica Jones and Insecure. And, for as familiar as the structure of the film looks, the dynamism of their words and vision combined with Hudson’s ferocity bodes well for it.
It arrives sometime in December.
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This trailer makes it seem like the movie is *only* about the song Respect, like it ends with the song becoming a hit. If you didn’t know anything about Franklin this trailer almost makes it look like Respect was her only hit single and is the only song people remember her for.
I swear to god, if they try to make Otis Redding look bad in this …
Exactly. They better show Otis some respect.
Easy Turbo, if we have all have had to endure the plethora of white man rockers bio, giving some airtime to a female legend….and a black woman at that, is a cultural plus. Once we get to the point where Nina Simone, Tracy Chapman, Janet Jackson, Donna Summers, Sade Adu and Laureen Hill have bios coming out within a two year timespan compete g with Arethas, then we could express over saturation. My lord, looking at each of these woman’s unique life experiences, why aren’t we seeing more bios of female artist? I wanna know how the hell Kate Bush became Kate Bush *in her teens*. Fully visualized and quirky musical execution intact. Or equally fascinating, how the hell did The GoGos go from underground punk legends to the pop equivalent of Facts of Life (image wise) while still writing damn good legendary songs? Or the tragic story of Natalie Cole whose struggles with addiction and being accepted in the shadow of her father achieved her biggest critical, financial and public success by embracing her father’s legacy only to then die at a young age. That’s some serious Shakespearian level isssh. Otay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Especially since Hudson does zero justice to Aretha’s vocals. I was hoping for a Jaime Foxx level mimic or at least an honorable attempt like the actor (why am I drawing a blank on his name?) who played Elton John. Instead she sounds like Jennifer Hudson trying to sound like Jennifer Holliday which worked for Dreamgirls but, no, pass. If she had the charisma and legendary presence like a Dianna Ross (who gave zero f*cks about giving a true depiction of Billy Holiday but still gave a brilliant performance because she herself is captivating and fascinating to watch) yet sadly, despite a balls out I’m Telling You, Hudson’s screen presence bores.
Uh, that was a joke.
I agree. It was a little off-putting.
Plus, I’m pretty sure we’ve seen how the song ‘Respect’ was conceived in a Chicagoland soul food restaurant:
Oh good, another musician biopiczzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz – I’m sure this one won’t be exactly the same as all the others!
Will she lose weight for the role?
Wonder what Forest Whitaker looks at in this movie.