- Hi, I'm Jennifer Hudson
and I play Aretha Franklin in Respect,
And I'm here with BuzzFeed to talk about my first time.
(Intro playing)
Oh my god my first album I ever bought,
it was probably something like Boyz II Men, or En Vogue
or Voices. Y'all, remember Voices?
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
I can't remember that far back,
but I think somewhere up in there
or maybe a gospel album.
Wow, my first memory of listening to Aretha Franklin.
It may have been like, Mary Don't You Weep,
from one of her gospel albums 'cause I'm a church girl
and I grew up in the church and for a long time,
all we could listen to was church songs, okay?
So probably Mary Don't You Weep, but the most memorable
that I remember hearing people talk about was Dr. Feel Good.
Okay, the first time I met Aretha Franklin,
I was eliminated from American Idol,
and I got to open up for her
in Merrillville, Indiana, in her concert.
I was the opening act of that show
and I also got to sit there and watch her sing
from the backstage view.
And all my family came out
this was like in 2003, I wanna say.
I remember giving her flowers,
I remember taking a photo with her.
Aretha was very quiet, she didn't say much back then
and thanking her for allowing me to sing.
And I was like, wow, she even let me sing back then.
I got a photo, that's what I remember most.
The first time I realized I wanted to be a performer was...
Ooh, watching all my grandmothers sing in church,
my cousins sing in church and
begging for a solo
in church.
I would go from the organist,
to the pianist like, can I sing? Can I sing? Can I sing?
And then when it came time for me to sing,
I got stage fright and couldn't remember the words
and the congregation had to help me out shy.
I was terrified by the time it was time to sing.
My first real and only job
was working at Burger King.
And I used to sing to the customers in
the drive thru on the little microphone beep, beep.
When it beeped, oh, that was my moment.
My opportunity to sing them people down
as they made their order in the drive away.
I would like have a song to sing.
And then from there,
turns out the manager of Burger King
was a club promoter.
And so he started to hire me to sing for his club events.
And I ended up making more money, singing one song for that
then I did work in at Burger King and that is when I quit
working at Burger King. I said, " Pssh,
I'm funna make my living using my gift."
And that's what I've been doing ever since.
What, the first time I realized I was famous?
Only thing that I could think of,
I think this is the first time I realized my star power,
how about that?
Dreamgirls.
All the dreamettes on the stage we were shooting Move.
And between the tape, like the audience would be like,
Hey! You know, scream out Beyonce or Nika.
And Jennifer, and I went to wave like, oh Hey.
And from me waving like the reaction,
everybody was like, "haa!"
And I was like,
then I looked at my hand and I was...
And I waved again they just went crazy.
And I was like, well, what is that?
I'm like that star power,
like that's when it was like
the power of stardom, I guess.
It creeped me out too, though when people cry on you.
First behind the scene memory of American Idol.
I will rehearse.
I like stairwells.
We used to be a CBS studio.
We will all find a little nook
to rehearse in
and I will always go hide in the stairwell.
Most of my rehearsals is in a stairwell or a bathroom, okay.
'Cause the acoustics is amazing.
It could be in your solitude and sing.
So I will go in the stairwell.
George will be in the hallway
and we would find little nooks.
George Huff, hands down, and we still work together.
George Huff was my first friend
that I've made on the set of American Idol.
And I have to tell you this story
because we were in Pasadena, California.
I don't know what it's narrowed down to at this point.
Maybe the top 130, I don't know.
And we're all outside and I had big hair,
that's why I have big hair right now
because I'm paying homage to when the world first met me.
Although everybody keeps saying,
I look like Whitney Houston, I accept it.
I didn't even know that,
but I was trying to go back to the Jennifer Hudson big hair.
Anyway so I had the big hair and the big presence,
According to George,
I went to speak to him and he screams at me
like he's so excited, he falls on his knees.
"Aaahaha oh my god!"
And I was like, okay, walk away from him he's crazy.
And I promise you, God spoke to me in that moment and said,
go back and talk to that boy.
And I'm so glad that I did
because George Huff to this day
is one of my best friends, my vocal arranger now,
and he is a part of, a huge part of, JHud Productions.
Well first of all, before I start with the first impression,
how crazy is that?
Jamie Fox is like my favorite male actor,
Beyonce is my favorite female artists
and then to end up in a film with them?
That's nothing but God, like what?
That blew me away.
Again, the first time I met Beyonce was when I was literally
in the middle of choreography rehearsal with
Fatima Robinson for Dreamgirls,
and walks this pretty pretty girl.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, she's so pretty.
Oh my God, that is Beyonce.
(mumbling excitingly)
And I lost sight of everything,
every step Fatima had taught me.
Jamie, my first time meeting him
was in the middle of a scene of Dreamgirls.
It was, we are a family thing.
In walks Jamie,
and I had to kiss him. I was like,
what can I at least say hello?
Like I've never met him, this is my first film. So that was
a little weird. That was a lot
for a first timer and to meet like Jamie Fox?!
And the introduction is that okay, kiss action kiss.
Huh?
Once I brought it home...
I don't know what I did with it.
All I remember is at the leaving,
like the, after parties of the Oscars,
I set on my nightstand, right beside me in my hotel room.
I fell asleep, looking at it.
Even to this day, I still, every blue moon gold,
sit by it and be like,
that's mine?
'Cause it's still kind of surreal, it is.
But it sits on award wall in my home right now.
And it sits in the center of all the other awards
and it says,
♪ Haaaaa ♪
- Thank you BuzzFeed.
Make sure you see Respect, August 13th.