Jennifer Hudson: Screen ‘Idol’ In ‘Dreamgirls’

NEW YORK (December 12, 2006) — Last year, Jennifer Hudson’s options were running out.

Her 15 minutes of “American Idol” fame were waning. She was without the recording contract she so desired. She had no manager to guide her. And she was spending her days in a recording studio with “random producers,” singing songs for an audience yet to be determined.

Hudson began to think that her dreams of stardom might be fading — and that she was wasting her time.

“I’m in there like, ‘What’s the point? Why am I even doing this? Who gonna hear it? Are they even going to care?”’ Hudson remembers thinking.

But she still had her voice — the stirring, gospel-tinged instrument that made her such a favorite on “American Idol” — and figured with that gift, anything was possible.

“I just didn’t give up,” she says. “I knew it was something in store, but I just didn’t know when.”

It only took a few months for her to find out what that something would be: the pivotal role of the temperamental, tragic Effie White in the long-awaited movie production of the ‘80s Broadway musical “Dreamgirls,” loosely based on Diana Ross and the Supremes.

Though the film stars heavyweights like Academy Award-winner Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Beyonce, it’s the 25-year-old Hudson, making her feature film debut, who has become the movie’s revelation with a breathtaking performance that’s sparking Oscar talk.

“I can’t believe my name is even mentioned in the same breath as that,” the striking, statuesque Hudson says in an interview, stifling a shy smile. “There’s so much excitement going on but I just have to say, ‘You know what? That’s not here yet.’ It’s beautiful to hear these things … (but) you don’t want to get your hopes up too high.”

Hudson had a similar attitude when she got the offer to audition for the role. She wasn’t on a shortlist of candidates for Effie, but a very long one — about 800 names long. Unknowns from across the nation vied for the opportunity to play the big-voiced, hefty lead singer who gets shunted aside for the petite, pretty backup.

“She was somewhere in the mix with 783 girls,” recalled Laurence Mark, the film’s producer. “They came in at least once … and indeed Jennifer was somewhere in the middle there.”

Bill Condon, who wrote the Oscar-winning film adaptation of “Chicago,” was familiar with Hudson. As an “Idol” fan, he was watching when Hudson, considered a favorite to win the 2004 competition, got voted off in the later rounds. She was invited audition for the role. The screen test was noteworthy — but not spectacular.

“Bill, at some point during the test, called me to say there’s something here, this is very exciting,” Mark recalls Condon telling him. “For whatever reason, when we all saw the results of that test, somehow what Bill saw in the room, didn’t actually make it intact on the screen. So we kept looking.”

Condon was determined to find a woman like the character of Effie — a demanding persona who commands your attention from the moment she steps into view. And he wasn’t quite sure Hudson could convey that.

“Effie is a larger-than-life character who is almost a force of nature,” Condon said. “There was an element of owning every room that she walked into, of forcing you to pay attention only to her, that (Hudson) still was a little tentative about it.”

She also had some competition — her “American Idol” competition, Fantasia, who won the crown the year Hudson was kicked off by viewers.

But Hudson didn’t let the pressure bother her. She hired an acting coach the moment she got the audition and practiced her lines every night with her boyfriend. She eventually won the filmmakers over — and continued to do so once she landed the role.

When Condon told her she needed to bring out her inner witch to channel Effie’s difficult side, she stopped being sweet Jennifer on the set and became a diva. When others would sing during rehearsals, she’d remain silent, because as Effie says: “I don’t do backup.”

More voluptuous than heavy, she also added considerable pounds to her 5-foot-9 frame for the role. And when it came time to perfect the tightly choreographed dance steps, Hudson worked overtime to get her act in Beyonce-like form.

“That was the most challenging part for me across the board, hands down, because I’m not a dancer at all. Like the acting may have came natural, the singing of course — the dancing?” she says, shaking her head. “I don’t care how many times I do it, I will never get used to it.”

But she hardly seems like she’s struggling on screen. She not only holds her own with all those boldface names, she overtakes them with her sassy, heartbreaking portrayal.

“It’s a natural gift,” Condon says. “She doesn’t have any formal training, she doesn’t have any acting training, but she is as powerful and in touch with her emotions when she acts as when she sings.”

Foxx was among those in awe of her performance — Hudson remembers being pulled aside by the Oscar-winner and Murphy after the film was over and getting their seal of approval.

Foxx, who continues to offer raves of his co-star, says of Hudson: “I think she realized the opportunity of it. She realized if she gets this right, she had to know her life is going to change.”

It already has — Arista Records signed her to a recording contract. And though she became a TV star for a few months in the whirlwind of “Idol,” she laughs heartily when asked if her initial brush with fame was much different from the current attention.

“On ‘Idol,’ I didn’t have a personal makeup artist and a stylist and hairdresser and a publicist — that makeup artist was 11 other people’s makeup artist, OK?” she says. “Here, it’s a whole new world, it’s different. I mean, ‘Idol’ gave us a taste, a taste, a sample of it. This, I get the whole plate. I got a buffet!”