Living the dream

Jennifer Hudson brings truth, clarity to 'Dreamgirls' role

Englewood has always been about people going somewhere, getting out; the hopes of a searching choir. At one time, more than 1,000 trains a day passed through the Englewood Train Station. Jennifer Hudson’s father was a bus driver. Church moved the spirit.

The Hudson family lived near 70th and Yale in Englewood.They could only dream of their daughter’s American journey.

Hudson is getting Oscar buzz for her film debut in “Dreamgirls,” which opens Christmas Day at area theaters. Hudson, 25, sparkles in a cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles and Eddie Murphy. In 2003 Hudson finished seventh among 70,000 hopefuls in “American Idol.” She’s sat down with Oprah and she’s fired up by frenzied publicists.

Hudson just signed a deal with Clive Davis’ Arista Records. She has urban gospel in her voice, a clarity and truth she brings to the character of Effie White in the movie loosely based on the story of the Supremes. Ironically, the original Tony Award-winning musical was based in Chicago. The film version is set in Detroit.

Hudson’s riveting five-octave performance of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” is her moment in the film. It belongs to her like the stars belong to the sky. Effie stands tall with dignity after being cast aside by her manager/boyfriend (Foxx). The scene was filmed over four days on a Los Angeles sound stage. Hudson’s performance has prompted the Best Supporting Actress buzz — and the Academy always loves a musical.

“I’ve known I wanted to sing since I was 7,” Hudson said during a conversation in a Near North Side hotel suite. “I’d ask for solos in church and they’d give me the runaround. I remember sitting in the bathroom of my house at 7 years old crying and saying, ‘Nobody will listen to me, so I’ll listen to myself sing.’ To look back at that moment and think of right now; singing here, there and everywhere, it’s like ‘Wow!”

It hasn’t always been “Wow!”

The rags-to-riches parallels between “American Idol” and “Dreamgirls” are as clear as the gloss on the nails of Diana Ross. Even Elton John thought Hudson was robbed of the grand “American Idol” prize, saying she was the “best of the lot.” After Hudson was booted, “Idol” host Simon Cowell snarled, “You get one shot, and the runner-ups; you ain’t never gonna be seen again.”

“I’ve had a similar journey as Effie,” Hudson said. “Me being a part of ‘Idol,’ her being part of the group. I was kicked off the talent show. She was the lead singer of the group [The Dreamettes] and kicked off to the background. We both go through our journeys, trying to hold on to our dream and achieve our goal. We have hardships but we prevail at the end.”

Hudson’s father Samuel Simpson died but her mother Darnell Hudson still lives in Englewood. Hudson’s older brother Jason is a mechanic and older sister Julia is a school bus driver. Every time she sings, Hudson thinks of her late grandmother Julia Kate Hudson, who sang at Pleasant Gift Missionary Baptist Church, 4526 S. Greenwood, where Hudson got her start. Her grandmother died in 1998.

“To build my emotions, I thought of her,” Hudson said. “Like, ‘What if she could see me now?’

She used to sing ‘How Great Thou Art.’ I have a recording of Mahalia Jackson singing that on my iPod. I’d listen to it before a song. There was one point they had to stop the cameras because it was too emotional.

“I never had any voice training,” she continued. “I started in the soprano section of the choir.”

Her first solo was “Must Jesus Bare The Cross Alone.” Hudson later sang at Dunbar Vocational High School, which produced music greats like Lou Rawls and Cleotha and Pervis Staples of the Staple Singers (sisters Mavis and Yvonne went to Francis Parker). Now there is a Jennifer Hudson Room at Dunbar. Room 134 is filled with “Dreamgirls” posters and Hudson’s “American Idol” moments.

Hudson’s cousin Shari Nichols-Sweat is a Dunbar music teacher. She recruited Hudson for spirit choir.

“You could hear the anointing quality of her voice,” Nichols-Sweat said. “Her voice is charismatic and it moves you. Some people are overwhelmed about her, but I’m calm because this is what I expected. She is the star in my crown and I am very grateful.”

Richard Nunley was Hudson’s choral teacher between 1995 and 1999 at Dunbar.

“She’s also a great classical singer, and a lot of people don’t know that,” said Nunley, who now teaches at Morgan Park. “I wanted her to learn classical technique and develop a good instrument so she could be prepared to sing whatever kind of music she wanted. She was crazy about Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight, Aretha Franklin — old school.

“She’d always say, ‘Mr. Nunley, I’m going to make you proud of me. I’m going to be a famous singer’.”

Hudson said, “I didn’t know how or when, but I knew there was going to be something huge. In any audition I walk in, before ‘Idol’ and after ‘Idol,’ regardless of what happens, I know I’m walking away with my gift and nobody has that but me.”

Jennifer Hudson carries this confidence into “Dreamgirls.” She plays Effie with a swagger, but also reveals an inner vulnerability. It wasn’t easy.

“I had to find a way into it,” Hudson admitted. “[Director] Bill Condon sent me into ‘Diva 101.’ He told me I was too nice. So I’d come into the room angry, but tell all the ADs, ‘Bill told me to do this. This is Effie and not Jennifer.’ I had to learn how to separate myself from the character with that attitude. That was Bill’s main concern. Effie had to have that edge.”

Academy Award winner Condon wrote the “Dreamgirls” screenplay based on the stage musical’s original book and lyrics. He was the screenwriter of “Chicago.”

In May 2005 a casting agency called Hudson at her Chicago home asking her to audition for the role of Effie. Hudson was not familiar with the musical version of “Dreamgirls.” The film opens almost 25 years to the day the Michael Bennett produced musical debuted on Broadway. Hudson said, “I only knew the music from Jennifer Holliday (who won a Tony for her portrayal of Effie). I didn’t think there was a soundtrack.” 

Hudson’s first audition song was the Three Dog Night hit “Easy to Be Hard,” which she did for “American Idol.” Her final audition was the screen test.

“It went from, ‘She’s the best we’ve seen’ to ‘We’re going in a different direction’ to ‘You’re not being considered anymore’ — twice. After that they called back for a full screen test. They called at 3 p.m. and had me on a plane to Los Angeles by 7 p.m. They told me to bring everything I own. Two days later I had the part.”

The six-month search covered more than 780 women. Hudson even beat out “American Idol” winner Fantasia Barrino.

In the late 1980s Whitney Houston was being considered for a possible “Dreamgirls” film role. Her dreams turned into tabloid nightmares. How will Hudson stay grounded through her rapid ascent?

“It could have been anybody,” she said. “Millions didn’t make it, but I was one that did. I’m grateful. And I realize Chicago is my home and my reality. I come home and I have to stand in line like everybody else. I love the moment of Hollywood, but you need that reality to smack you in the face.”

She sounds like a Chicagoan.

In January 2001, Hudson landed a major role in the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre’s production of the Roger Miller musical “Big River.” Hudson said, “That’s when I knew I could actually make a living doing this. I’ve only had one real job. When I was 16 I worked at Burger King (at 87th and State).”

Hudson’s journey from gospel to pop has served her well. Last Mother’s Day she opened for Aretha Franklin at the Star Plaza in Merrillville, Ind. And in September she appeared in a United Negro College Fund Aretha tribute in Los Angeles.

“Church is where I’m from. It will always be my favorite place to sing and that’s where I’d like to go back to,” Hudson said. “I try to bring it in my music. A lot of the great singers came from church. That’s the heart of music. Just last night I was listening to Aretha’s ‘All The Kings Horses.’ I love real music. And that’s my definition of real music, something that has meaning and purpose.”

At the film’s wrap party Hudson reprised “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” with Jamie Foxx. Hollywood is telling the feisty Englewood native she is here to stay.

dhoekstra@suntimes.com

Jennifer Hudson will begin recording her debut album in January for Clive Davis’ Arista Records. Songwriters are currently being recruited for the record. “It will have plenty of soul,” Hudson promised during a recent interview in Chicago.

Davis’ hit production team “The Underdogs” — Harvey Mason, Jr. and Damon Thomas, who arranged and produced the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack album — were brought on board to produce Hudson’s record. They’ve also produced Justin Timberlake and Pink and they’re currently working on Whitney Houston’s comeback album.

“Finding songs for Jennifer is unlike working with anyone else,” Mason said last week from Los Angeles. “Just because of her range and the dynamics of her voice. There’s something accommodating about the way that she sings and you want to display that. On the other hand, you can’t go crazy writing songs that show off her voice. You have to write songs that work on the radio.”

Mason and Thomas also applied similar balance to the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack (Columbia), which has 20 songs (with a bonus track), including Hudson’s showstopper, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.”
Dave Hoekstra