Dreamgirls: Dream movie - page 2

27-01-2007 08:15

The movie follows the power struggles within the group when new manager Curtis Taylor (Jamie Foxx) suggests they sing back up for James 'Thunder' Early (Murphy).

Friendships are frayed when he then replaces lead singer Effie with the more aesthetically pleasing Deena Jones (Knowles).

Director Bill Condon has stuck to the award-winning formula that won him Oscar statues for 'Chicago' and created a slick journey through the glamour and sleaze of the 1960s music industry.

Of course a prolonged publicity campaign has also helped the hype. The film is not released in the UK until February 2, but at last summer's Cannes film festival, in May, the talent walked the red carpet for a premiere of a selected few scenes.

Here Hudson, Danny Glover (who plays Early's manager Marty Madison), Anika Noni Rose (the other Dreamette, Lorrell Robinson) and Condon discuss how they hope the movie will dispel the myth that black movies don't sell and how they are confident the film will get us all dancing, crying and singing in the aisles. Oh, and buying the Oscar-nominated soundtrack!

Q: Bill, as a student and lover of musical drama did you approach this award-winning musical with any trepidation at all?

A: Well I knew it was a gorgeous piece of work I was getting my hands on, but I was nervous. As opposed to 'Chicago' where all the numbers take place on the stage, the most famous numbers in this musical are numbers that arrive out of the drama, that a couple of generations have grown up without.

So the big challenge for me was how do I get Jennifer singing, 'And I'm Telling You', how do you get Lorrell singing 'Lorrell loves Jimmy', those times where you break reality and break out into song.

Q: Anika, you have a tremendous track record on stage, so was there a different kind of preparation for plunging yourself into a movie with people who make movies sometimes three or four times a year?

A: I actually didn't approach it any differently to how I approach the stage. I think that as an actor you find your way to your character and create your character inside out. And the script was written so well, and filming was such a comfortable environment, that the oddest thing for me was dealing with the fact that things were not happening chronologically.

So you know you get there at five o'clock in the morning and you're 17 years old, at lunch your 25, you have a snack you're 19! I made sure that on my script above each scene I wrote the year and age that I was so I wasn't a schizo!

Q: Jennifer, not that long ago nobody really knew who you were, now that has been remedied, is the dream still continuing for you?

A: Yes it is. I never would have guessed two years ago that I would have been here in this way. This is all very new to me. I mean, I've been singing my whole life, so this is a great film to be a part of.

Q: Who had to persuade Eddie that he could be so good in a dramatic role, and, as his co-stars what was it like to work with somebody who clearly, on camera at least, had to suppress their wild sense of humour?

A: Anika: I can say that one thing about Eddie is that he really is a wonderful person with a wonderful spirit. And what people don't know is that he is very still and very shy, so working with him you're not working with somebody who is constantly on. You're working with somebody who when they say action is giving you the most amazing performance ever. And so totally open to whatever it is that you are giving him, because you have an amazing give and take and wonderful electricity working with Eddie. That is what is phenomenal and constant with him. He is not the type of person that you are like, 'Oh, God please just shut up, please just don't make me laugh again.' He is just not that.

What he has done in this film, I think, has opened up a brand new venue of performance for himself. I don't think that people were really prepared to see him do something like this. The singing and dancing are great, but those still moments, those quiet moments, those poignant moments, are absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. He is amazing, just amazing.

Q: Jennifer, congratulations on your Golden Globe. You dedicated your award to your late grandmother Julie Kate, could you tell us a bit more about that?

A: Yes, well she is my biggest musical influence and she chose not to go professionally into singing because she said she just wanted to save her voice for the Lord. And they say I have her voice, so I attribute all of this to her. I hope she is proud.

Q: Didn't another member of your family once get you employment at a fast-food restaurant?

A: Yes, actually my sister she was a super employee at Burger King and then there was me, who couldn't get nothing right at all. I was about 15, 17 years old and I couldn't do anything right, so I ended up quitting and from then on I promised myself that I would use my gift and my talent to make my living, and ever since I've been singing, and now acting!

Q: Back then when you were working in Burger King, where was acting on your agenda?

A: Acting never occurred to me until I got the call to come and audition for this role. I did participate in school plays but I would always just be the singer. But when the acting came about I fell in love with it and it is something I want to continue to do.

Q: Viewers of a certain age will see Effie as Florence Ballard (an original singer with The Supremes sacked in 1967), could you tell us about the specific singers you looked at in your preparation for the role?

A: Florence is definitely one of the people I looked at, and probably most closely. I feel like Effie's story and I guess the Dreamette's story itself is a bit of everybody in the industry. And as far as the music I looked at Aretha, I looked at Whitney, I looked at Jennifer Holiday, and I tried to attribute all of the great female vocalists in almost every song that I performed.

Q: Bill, 'Dreamgirls' is said to be inspired by The Supremes, so Diana Ross, happy, unhappy, not fussed, what was her reaction to the film?

A: Well, I worked with Rob Marshall in Chicago, and last year right before we started shooting I went to the premiere of 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and I'm sitting there and Diana Ross sits down in front of me. I watched the entire movie through her hair. I was so tempted to reach over.

You know it's not right, it's not her story. And I think she understands, 'Dreamgirls' was always a highly fictionalised version of real events. It isn't her life, that is her own right to tell that story.

But, my God, I mean I love her so much, Beyoncé loves her so much, there is no question, we all took stuff out of our closets, old albums and old pictures and stuff like that.

It's a tribute to her as an icon and frankly as a pioneer she changed the world. So I hope she takes it in that spirit when she finally does see it or watch it again.

Q: Jennifer, the film is, in a way, about manipulation and questionable figures of guidance in the industry. Apart from you old pal Simon Cowell on 'American Idol', who else has offered you guidance?

A: Wow, lets see, if I want to consider what Simon does guidance!

I think I have been blessed, my parents have definitely been a source of guidance for me. To be able to sit back and watch them, I take that as a blessing and I just try to learn from them.

Q: And were you more nervous standing in front of Simon Cowell, sharing a screen with Beyoncé Knowles, or having to kiss Jamie Foxx?

A: Well, I was definitely nervous about kissing Jamie. But I think because 'Idol' was first I would have to say 'Idol', because it helped prepare me for this. And I walked away saying if I can do 'Idol' I can do anything. So any time I would get on set and I would get nervous I would think come on you did 'American Idol'. The way they just get you on the stage and devour you into pieces. If I can stand that and still survive, then I know I can get through anything.

Q: Danny what do you think 'Dreamgirls' can offer to the genre of African-American movies?

A: They say that black films don't sell. That black films don't sell in Europe, that black films don't sell in Asia. And we want to use this as a platform to prove them wrong. Use this extraordinary film and extraordinary talent that you are going to see in years and years and years from now to show that they do sell. And what is key and important is that you have a story. It's a story that touches people's hearts, a story that moves people, a story that people can find a level of universal appeal in, so people are going to come and see that. And maybe we can change and shift the real paradigm, and really tell the truth about what you need to see and what you should see.

Q: Anika, there has been some criticism that there have not been many positive African-American movies made in the US, especially with strong female role-models, so are you proud to be a part of this project?

A: I am very proud, honoured and thankful to be a part of this project. It's true, it's honest, there is uglyness in it, but it's not going to that stereotypical place that says all we can do is shoot each other and shoot up drugs. It's the other story showing us in glamour mode, because we can do that too.

Q: Bill, is the finished cast the cast you set out to get, and did you have to persuade Beyoncé to come onboard, on did she have to persuade you?

A: Yes, this is truly a dream cast. I do feel that all these people were born to play these parts and I feel very lucky that we got everybody together. And Beyoncé did come after us it wasn't the over way round. We met, I loved her but I still had to question two things. One of them was that the role was a level of acting she had never attempted before, but more than that when you have got such a well developed stage persona - we all can name names of people who can do one thing brilliantly - could she adapt to something that was so really different? If you think of the way she uses her sexuality on stage. Beyoncé is so powerful and contemporary, and this was about something very different. It was about withholding and it was about a different kind of sexuality.

She volunteered to audition. She did a screen test, I didn't even have to put it together, it was very quick, we didn't see anybody else. She really wanted the part.

Q: How did she cope with the rather adult, strong language?

A: I think she liked that.

Q: Didn't she go out and buy a specific outfit to wear for the audition?

A: She went out and bought a Marilyn Monroe style dress for the audition. She did the title number, with a piano, and you would think she would do Diana Ross, and she had a little bit of that, but she had a lot of Marilyn. She understood that Deena, at that point, was trying to imitate the white sex goddess of the period. It was really very inventive.

By Kate Sole.