Aretha Franklin and Halle Berry
While the “Respect” singer got the biopic treatment in August 2021 with Jennifer Hudson in the starring role, Franklin had another idea several years earlier.
“I would’ve liked Halle Berry to portray the older Aretha in the upcoming biopic of my life based on my memoir, Aretha: From These Roots. She was my first choice, everything’s subject to negotiation, and she shouldn’t underestimate her own talent,” she revealed during a January 2011 appearance on The Wendy Williams Show. “There are a number of other leading ladies out there that can definitely handle the role. I never expected Halle to sing. She’s an actress, not a singer. Many actors have portrayed vocalists by lip-synching to the artists’ original recordings.”
Franklin was later so impressed by Hudson’s body of work that she specifically asked her to take over the role.
“Even when it was time to film, I was still freaking out in my mind about it,” the American Idol alum told NME in September 2021. “But because she had said, ‘I want you to play me’, that gave me the courage to be able to get through it. It was like, ‘Well if you believe I can do it, I’m willing to try.’”
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