A few weeks before the corona pandemic reaches the rest of the world from China, Jennifer Hudson is standing on the stage of a faceless multi-purpose hall in the small American town of Duluth. The Atlanta Gladiators' ice hockey team and the Georgia Swarm lacrosse team usually play around 35 kilometers north-east of Atlanta, and musicians such as Reba McEntire and Tyler, the Creator also perform regularly. But Jennifer Hudson - three top ten albums, two Grammys - didn't come for a concert. The Oscar winner ("Dreamgirls") picks up the microphone, but not as Jennifer Hudson: here she is Aretha. Yes, the Aretha.

The shooting of the film "Respect" about the life of the soul legend Aretha Franklin, which will be shown in German cinemas in December, is in full swing.

That evening, the big stage in Duluth becomes Cobo Hall in Detroit.

There, in the city of her childhood and youth, where her father CL Franklin was a pastor in a Baptist church, the then 23-year-old Aretha Franklin gave an acclaimed concert on February 16, 1966.

Martin Luther King Jr. presented her with a certificate that made this day in Detroit, when 12,000 fans were there live, permanently "Aretha Franklin Day".

Not just any movie

Around 300 extras are now in action in Duluth - just enough for the section of the audience that will later be seen in the film. The atmosphere in the draughty hall is good, with three journalists sitting in the back, mainly makeup artists and cloakroom attendants. At the front of the stage, Gilbert Glenn Brown, the actor who played the civil rights activist, kept getting text stuck in his speech. But at the latest when Jennifer Hudson sits down in her shiny light blue dress with fringed feathers on the piano and sings “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, all those present are again attentive.

An hour earlier, Hudson took time out for an interview. Very few actors still feel like talking to the press during weeks of filming. But “Respect” isn't just any movie for Hudson. 15 years after her breakthrough with the musical film “Dreamgirls” and other supporting roles in films such as “Sex and the City”, “Black Nativity” and “Cats”, she now has her biggest screen appearance to date - and also embodies a friend, who she is adored for a long time. "In 2004, shortly after doing the talent show American Idol, I got the chance to support Ms. Franklin in Merrillville, Indiana," says Hudson of their first meeting. "After the concert I got to know her briefly, gave her flowers and took a picture with her."not being addressed jovially by first name. That didn't change later when the two became friends. Hudson sticks to it to this day, not always, but mostly.

"It was always clear that there is no second Aretha"

"That there would be a film about her life was certain a few years before her death," says Hudson of Franklin, who died in August 2018 of pancreatic cancer. “She personally decided that I should play the leading role. That is definitely one of the greatest honors that I have received in my life so far. ”Scott Bernstein, the main producer in charge of“ Respect ”, had been trying to organize a biopic about Franklin since 2014. "Of course, the most important question was who could adequately impersonate Ms. Franklin, and she had a lot of and constantly changing views on that," he says during a break in filming in Atlanta. “Ultimately, however, she had as little doubt as I that Jennifer was the only real contender for the role. Not only because of their friendship, but alsobecause we needed someone who could sing their songs. "