Preview: The Academy Award-winning actor talks with \u00ab\u00a0CBS Sunday Morning\u00a0\u00bb about her friendship with the music legend, who handpicked Hudson for the starring role in the new biopic.<\/b>
\nAcademy Award- and Grammy-winner Jennifer Hudson portrays the late music icon Aretha Franklin in the new film \u00ab\u00a0Respect,\u00a0\u00bb set to hit theaters August 13. It’s a role Hudson was handpicked to play by Franklin, long before she died in 2018. Hudson opens up about her friendship with Franklin, how she portrayed the legend, and how she drew on her own life to enrich the performance, in an interview with correspondent Kelefa Sanneh for \u00ab\u00a0CBS Sunday Morning,\u00a0\u00bb to be broadcast August 1. As the story goes, Franklin was so impressed with Hudson’s 2006 performance in \u00ab\u00a0Dreamgirls,\u00a0\u00bb that she wanted the former \u00ab\u00a0American Idol\u00a0\u00bb contestant to play her when the time came. \u00ab\u00a0The very first thing Aretha said to me when we sat down was, ‘You’re going to win an Oscar for playing me, right?'\u00a0\u00bb Hudson recalled. \u00ab\u00a0I didn’t know what to say.\u00a0\u00bb Hudson said the two stayed in touch, and one day eight years later, Franklin called to say she had picked Hudson to play her. They would talk weekly up until Franklin died, Hudson said. Sanneh also traveled with Hudson to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where she visited, for the first time, the Fame Recording Studios \u2013 hallowed ground where many believe Franklin learned to use her powerful voice that led to becoming a worldwide phenomenon. \u00ab\u00a0You can feel, like, the magic I feel like that’s taken place,\u00a0\u00bb Hudson told Sanneh of being at Fame. \u00ab\u00a0Respect\u00a0\u00bb chronicles the joys and sorrows of Franklin’s life. Like Franklin, Hudson has suffered some family tragedies. She told Sanneh she drew from those experiences and used her own grief to help tell Franklin’s story. \u00ab\u00a0There’s no way I would have been able to deliver this or tell this in such an honest, vulnerable way to those depths without my own life experience to channel it from,\u00a0\u00bb Hudson said. Hudson also talked with Sanneh about her career, and her thoughts about Franklin’s life. Sanneh also talks with some of the musicians who played with Franklin at the Fame Recording Studios. To watch a trailer for \u00ab\u00a0Respect\u00a0\u00bb click on the video player below. To go behind the scenes with \u00ab\u00a0Sunday Morning\u00a0\u00bb at Fame Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala., click on the video player below. The Emmy Award-winning \u00ab\u00a0Sunday Morning\u00a0\u00bb is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9 a.m. ET. \u00ab\u00a0Sunday Morning\u00a0\u00bb also streams on CBSN [beginning at 9 a.m. ET and 11:30 a.m. ET] and Paramount+, and is available on cbs.com and cbsnews.com. Be sure to follow us at cbssundaymorning.com, and on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.<\/p>\n