00:00You know, with this film, I think a lot of audiences are going to be learning things about
00:20Aretha Franklin that they didn't know before, and I'm curious for you what you learned about
00:25yourself stepping into her shoes and taking on this role. Oh my god, I, I, that's a good question.
00:35I don't know the answer to that. What did, what did I learn about myself?
00:43You got me stuck. I'm gonna come back to this. Okay, that's fine. Well, I had talked to Marlon
00:50Wayans a few months ago, and he talked about the dynamic on set. He said he was like,
00:55order lunch sometimes, or massage, or just trying to take care of you, you know, as a friend and
00:59having to play this kind of dynamics. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yes, he is the absolute
01:04best co-star ever. He was an amazing Ted, and it was awesome just to work with him and, and, and see
01:14his take on Ted, which was awesome. But yes, he took such good care of me. I was like, one time he
01:23bought me like a hundred pieces of chocolate. No, then I ended up with 50 and he was mad because
01:29the other 50 didn't show up. I was like, it's okay. But we had the best time. And that is the
01:35beautiful thing about the entire project because everybody there from, from the director to the DP
01:41to the extras and everybody in between was there out of love and respect for Aretha Franklin. So it was a
01:48passion project across the board for everyone, which made it so enjoyable. And I wanted to ask
01:53about that because I feel like, you know, expectations are so high when you do a biopic and
01:57specifically, you know, for someone like Aretha Franklin. And I wonder, you know, were you able
02:01to enjoy the time on set or were there things that made you nervous, you know, in the moment? How was it
02:06for you? Um, you're very right with everything you just said and nerves come with all of that and
02:12anxiety doing filming. I mean, you can't be your best when you focus on something like that.
02:18So now, now those things are hitting me now. I'm like, Oh Lord, what in the world? You know,
02:25but then I remember like Haley, young Haley who played Aretha's sister, like you seem so calm. And
02:31I'm like, no, I'm not. Don't be cool. But, um, cause everybody knew like the task that it was.
02:39And I think that's why Marlon was so hands-on and so helpful as well. But yeah, it had to be a
02:44mind over matter type of situation. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I, um, I got to see a special screening early
02:52with my best friend. And when we left, we both looked at each other and we talked about the scene
02:56in the studio, uh, you know, where you sing like that was the moment for us. Like we just thought it
03:01was incredible, um, you know, making this song for the first time. I'm curious for you, what was your
03:06favorite scene? Oh my, well, all of them, but I really enjoyed, um, the making of like the rehearsals
03:19and piecing together respect, like how it started off and we peeled in and then you ended up on the
03:24stage, that whole process. Okay. So fun. Like, and, and all the music was done live. So it was like
03:30feeling like, you know, I felt like I was performing on the stage, you know, and it was done in real
03:36time. The church scenes felt real. Like I grew up in a church, so I'm like, I don't really know the
03:42difference right now of being in church other than the fact that I'm singing as my Aretha versus
03:49Jennifer, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So, but it made it a lot of fun. Okay. Okay, good. I'm gonna go
03:55back to that first question. They told me I got one minute. Oh God, you're good. What did I learn
04:01about myself? I learned that I'm crazy for doing this and I am a very determined individual to get
04:12it done. I'm gonna leave it at that. Okay. I like that. Well, thank you so, so much. You did an amazing
04:19job and thank you for taking the time to chat with me. Thank you for having me.
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