Dream girl Jennifer Hudson reigns supreme

NEW YORK -- The showbiz fates are a fickle lot. And few know it better than Jennifer Hudson.

One minute, you are facing the nightmarish Simon Cowell, that snidely tongue-lasher of an American Idol judge, as he verbally shreds your disaster of a shocking-pink ensemble and announces that you are "out of your league" on national TV.

The next, you're enjoying sweet reveries about your debut in one of the year's most-anticipated films, Dreamgirls. The snazzy big-screen version of the 1981 Broadway musical, winner of six Tonys, about a Supremes-style '60s girl group, opens Dec. 15 for a special three-city engagement before going nationwide on Christmas Day.

Told that audiences are breaking into applause during the decade-spanning saga that co-stars Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy, she is elated.

"I had a dream last night that they're applauding at the movie," says Hudson, 25, tastefully attired in a flouncy green frock over a black T-shirt, adorned with just enough gold jewelry.

"And they do clap," she says with an infectious laugh.

What this Idol reject isn't mentioning is that her assured and heartbreakingly authentic performance is the reason for most of the noise.

The vocal cyclone of a Cinderella from the South Side of Chicago with a gospel-bred multi-octave range has managed to step into a much-coveted movie role that has proved to be a perfect fit.

Like her character, the hefty, haughty and highly gifted Effie Melody White, this healthy-sized belter (she gained 20 pounds for the movie, and lost 25 -- and that is it, she insists) defies the image of a svelte pop songstress while proving she can succeed on her own terms after being rudely shoved out of the spotlight by Idol voters in 2004.

At Monday's New York premiere, a standing ovation -- an event as rare in movie theaters as clean floors -- greeted her rafter-rattling rendition of the Mount Everest of show tunes, And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going), a five-minute explosion of desperation, despair and determination.

"It takes your head off," says Foxx, who plays Effie's manager and boyfriend, Curtis Taylor Jr. and takes the brunt of Hudson's gale-force fury in the number after he banishes her difficult diva from the group and his bed. "She does a fantastic job with the acting and then, all of a sudden, she's singing that song. It's beautiful. It was hard not to cry and double up with emotions."

Or as Henry Krieger, who wrote the music for the original score with the late lyricist Tom Eyen and contributes four new songs to the movie, says of this star-on-the-verge: "People have gone cuckoo for her and I have, too. She is completely beguiling."

Hudson already is the belle of the Oscar season ball, as prognosticators have her pegged as the one to beat in the supporting-actress category. The National Board of Review, in a likely sign of more trophies to come, handed her a breakthrough-performance honor on Wednesday.

She also just signed a recording contract with super producer Clive Davis and his J Records label, home to Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow and, oddly enough, all the Idol winners and runners-up.

And this dream-come-true girl, who began singing in churches at age 7 and worked as a Disney cruise-ship entertainer, is inspiring critical hosannas as well.

The nation's cultural curator, Oprah Winfrey, pronounced her performance "a religious experience." Peter Travers in Rolling Stone gushed, "She can act. She can nail a laugh with the sassy curl of her lip. She can break your heart by letting her eyes show how she hurts. And she can sing until the roof comes off the multiplex."

Newsweek simply declared, "When she's center stage, Dreamgirls is movie musical heaven."

Hudson even managed to impress Knowles, the R&B queen who leaves her Pink Panther-Austin Powers comedy comfort zone for nuanced drama as Deena Jones, the beauteous, slender and light-skinned Dream and Diana Ross stand-in who upstages the less-mainstream Effie when she takes over as lead.

"When I told people I was doing this movie, they were so happy for me," says the real-life veteran of girl-group wars after her reign in Destiny's Child.

"But they all wanted to know who was Effie and who was going to sing this song, And I Am Telling You. Jennifer had so much pressure. Never doing an album before, never doing a movie before. And she pulled it off. She gave you chills and made you want to cry. We were all scared together and we all learned together, and I feel like a big sister when I watch her. I see that people know she is a star."

Modest, honest, enthusiastic

The rookie, who beat 782 other hopefuls (including the winner of her Idol season, Fantasia Barrino) to play Effie, accepts such profuse praise with genuine modesty and honest enthusiasm that speaks well of her upbringing, if not her strong sense of self. "All I wanted to do was to be part of the movie and not disappoint," Hudson says. "I feel honored -- and, like, wow. It was last year at almost this time that I was cast. But to go from that to all of this? I never dreamed this up. That I missed."

If director and writer Bill Condon, who scripted Hollywood's last big movie musical success, 2002's Chicago, hadn't spied a certain spark during the audition process, Hudson may have missed her breakthrough completely.

When the field of would-be Effies was narrowed to 20, informal screen tests were done.

"Bill had called in the middle of her test in New York and said, 'There's something here. I'm very excited. There's something here,'" recalls producer Laurence Mark. "But for some reason, when we all saw the test, we couldn't quite see it ourselves."

With little time to spare, he persuaded Condon to trust his instincts, and they brought Hudson to L.A. so the director could work with her. She rose to the occasion. "In the second test," Mark says, "she killed."

Still, the novice had weeks of rehearsal ahead and had to get up to speed with her acting. "Vocally, she clearly has a rock-solid confidence," Condon says. "She just had to feel comfortable in another way of using her talent. Vocally, she is untrained, too. It comes from within her. It was just about extending that feeling she has when she sings into her performance."

Sensing Hudson was a bit too tentative when it came to fully realizing Effie's overbearing personality, he put her through Diva 101 lessons before actual shooting began. "He told me to go into rehearsal and don't sing along," she says. "Or come into a room when you feel like it. It's all about you. Nothing starts until Effie walks in, and everything ends when she leaves. And you bring it, you bring it, Effie brings everything."

What did her castmates think when dear Jennifer suddenly forgot her manners? "They would say, 'OK, Jennifer is acting a little weird today.' Because it's so far from me. I would be like, 'I'm sorry. It's Effie, not me.'"

Not that she didn't enjoy the opportunity to can the niceties. "I thought, 'This is my job? I get paid to come in late? And I get paid to be rude? Who gets to do that?'"

There was one final make-or-break challenge: Hudson had to conquer the ultimate show-stopper. As anyone familiar with Dreamgirls knows, if And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going) fails to knock 'em dead, nothing that comes before or after will matter.

She also had to compete with the past: Broadway history was made and the concept of a stage star redefined when the original Effie, Jennifer Holliday, let loose her primal roar on And I Am Telling You, a rendition that is still revered to this day. A version can be found online on YouTube in a legendary clip from the 1982 Tony Awards broadcast. "It's thunder," Hudson says. "It really is."

With all that to live up to, she prerecorded And I Am Telling You four times before everyone was satisfied. "I realized it was not about the vocal performance but more of an emotional performance. It's Effie's story and it's not a song."

Krieger gave her pointers along with Condon and a vocal coach. "When I first met her, she said, 'You know, I am a slow learner, but I will get it.' She said that with such certitude and peace, I knew she would."

The acting was another matter. Condon intentionally waited until the last week of shooting to film the scene with its sung-dialogue intro and cruel dismissal of Effie as she hits that final resounding note. Hudson sang full-out on every take in spite of the track that played along. "On that first day, after about four hours, that was it," the director says. "Her voice was starting to go. And once her voice was gone, everything was gone. We extended it over almost the whole week."

Condon issued one command: There is no crying in power ballads. "I told her, 'It is important for the audience to be moved by this character, but not you.' Among all of Effie's qualities, self-pity is not one."

Instead of weeping, he says, "If you look at Jennifer's eyes, they are moist through the whole song. Take after take, day after day. She's there and she controls it. And that is someone who is not trained."

Premieres. Press appearances. Possible awards shows. None of the hoopla seems to have gone to Hudson's well-coiffed head.

No going Hollywood for her. She plans to find her own place in her native Chicago. "That's what I want as my Christmas present to myself."

No on-set romances. She invited her childhood boyfriend, James (or Jamie, as she calls him), to the premiere along with her family.

Nor has she yet realized the red-carpet importance of learning how to pronounce the name of your outfit's designer as she stumbles over "Marc Bouwer."

And Simon says ...

But she did take some Effie-ish delight when Cowell swallowed his oversized pride and expressed his admiration for her when he appeared on tape during a recent Oprah show featuring the Dreamgirls cast.

Of course, he had to claim some of the credit, too. "I feel my criticism has probably had a significant part in your career," he said before requesting that she thank him when she wins her Oscar.

Hudson does give him his due, however. "He challenged me, you know. I wasn't hungry for it when I was on Idol, and hearing him say those things made me want to prove him wrong."

As for giving him a shout-out when and if she gets an Oscar, she is not counting her little gold man yet. "The first person on my list is God. That's the only thing I can tell you for whatever award I get."

Whatever happens next, one thing is clear. Jennifer Hudson is definitely not going. She has arrived.

(c) USA TODAY