LOS ANGELES – Jennifer Hudson was one of the last people on Earth to speak with Aretha Franklin.
The final of many conversations between Franklin and the actress hand-picked to portray her onscreen came days before the Queen of Soul's death on Aug. 16, 2018, at 76 of pancreatic cancer.
"One of the last things we spoke about was my son David loves to cook, because she loved to cook," says Hudson, 39, who moves from buoyantly showing off her purple fluffy slippers to somberly discussing the legend on a suite couch at Los Angeles' Four Seasons Hotel. "She told me what she ate and I sent her a video. I never heard back.
"It was the most bizarre thing. It was like when she died, I had literally just talked to her. Even down to the last day, we used to talk every week. I miss those talks."
Three years to the week after Franklin's death, the culmination of those conversations materialize onscreen with Hudson's performance in "Respect,"the long-delayed Franklin biopic finally coming to screens nationwide Friday.
"It's been a very long road," Hudson says.
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Hudson's public ties with her music idol can be traced all way back to 2004 – when the then-unknown Chicago singer belted out Franklin's 1970 hit "Share Your Love With Me" in her "American Idol" audition. Though she finished in seventh place on "Idol," a star was born.
After her Oscar-winning performance as Effie White in 2006's "Dreamgirls," Hudson would answer the common interview question of her next dream role with the answer "Aretha Franklin."
Franklin herself summoned a too-nervous-to-eat Hudson to a 2007 New York hotel breakfast meeting to discuss a possible screen portrayal. But the singer was one of many names discussed, and there wasn't even a screenplay at the time.
Nearly 10 years later, on a day off from her starring role in Broadway's "The Color Purple," Hudson finally received the fateful call from Franklin, who had retained the right to approve casting. She was the chosen one.
"She told me, 'It is you, young lady, who I want to play me,' " Hudson recalls, adding there was one condition. "She did remind me that she was the Queen of Soul and just as long as we had that understanding. I said, 'Yes ma'am, I know my place, and I respect that.' "
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Through evolving cast changes and delays in pulling together Franklin's passion project – ultimately landing with director Liesl Tommy and a cast including Forest Whitaker as Aretha's domineering father, the Rev. C.L. Franklin – Hudson honed her Aretha Franklin performance, working four hours a day to play piano for the screen.
"I’m never gonna play like Aretha; that was a gift from God. I'm aware of that," Hudson says. "But I have my little ear. I can peck just a little bit."
With her former fellow "The Voice UK" judge Tom Jones working as her vocal coach, Hudson worked on her Aretha voice.
"You don't want to duplicate or imitate," she says. "But the resolve was to show her influence on me and pay homage to certain nuances, like the way she shaped her mouth when she sang."
When Franklin died, it was Hudson, dressed in black, who steeled herself to give the stirring version of the gospel singer's "Amazing Grace," which brought Franklin's mourning family to their feet.
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"We are at Aretha Franklin's funeral, that's emotional enough, and then to have to sing – that's a whole other layer," Hudson says. "There were so many different emotions going on."
While filming "Respect" in Atlanta in late 2019, Hudson says, she would feel the singer's presence as she went through 83 period outfits, 11 wig changes and re-created historical performances such as at Los Angeles' New Temple Missionary Baptist Church – where Franklin's smash hit gospel live album "Amazing Grace" was performed.
The feelings were especially strong during one raw scene in which Franklin hits bottom with her drinking problem and sees a vision of her beloved deceased mother, Barbara (Audra McDonald). Hudson, whose own mother died in 2008, kept the makeup off and her hair untamed.
"I wanted it to be real," she says. "And it was so raw, I couldn't help but to relate to it: her loss, her story, it intertwined with my own in a way. So many pieces of this felt true to me."
After filming wrapped in February 2020, the single mom went into COVID-19 lockdown with her son David, 12 (with her onetime fiancé, former professional wrestler David Otunga), in her Chicago home. She still managed to organize an epic outdoor laser tag party in August for David's 11th birthday. "He's planning it this year. If anyone can top me, it's David," Hudson says.
The singer/actress has built a special wall at home for her accumulating acting awards and two Grammys (for "The Color Purple" cast album and her 2008 R&B album).
"So there's the BAFTA and the Grammys," says Hudson, using a hand sanitizer to represent the centerpiece Academy Award. "The Oscar sits in the middle with everything else around it."
She avoids the question of whether there's room for future awards. Hudson is not obsessing about "Respect" plaudits, even as she garners strong reviews for her performance.
“I just wish she could have saw it,” Hudson says, intoning Franklin, before coming to a realization. "Oh my God, this movie is finally here. It's happening. It's exciting and scary at the same time. But I don't even know what level that would be if she was actually here. I know Aretha would have something to say."
And if she could continue their conversations, Hudson knows what she would say.
"I sit here and think, 'I just hope I made her proud.'"
