How Jennifer Hudson's Costumes & Makeup Embody the Essence of Aretha Franklin in 'Respect'
Tony-winning costume designer Clint Ramos and makeup artist Stevie Martin speak with L'OFFICIEL about transforming Jennifer Hudson into the Queen of Soul.
Jennifer Hudson’s rise to stardom began on American Idol, where she auditioned with Aretha Franklin’s “Share Your Love With Me” and ascended as a finalist, making it to seventh place. The actress and singer has since gone on to become a Hollywood star, winning Grammys and an Academy Award along the way. Her latest feature film, Respect, brings her back to the discography that she began her career with as she stars as the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.
Directed by Liesl Tommy with a screenplay by Tracey Scott Wilson the biopic follows Franklin’s own path into the spotlight, spanning around 40 years of her life from her youth spent singing in church choir to becoming the sensational songstress known for songs like “Think,” “A Natural Woman,” and the movie’s namesake, “Respect.”
Franklin herself, in fact, selected Hudson to play her, before she passed in 2018. Transforming Hudson into the Queen of Soul was no light task, then, for Tony Award-winning costume designer Clint Ramos and makeup artist Stevie Martin. Both felt the pressure to honor Franklin’s memory, but it was never their goal to mold Hudson into a carbon copy recreation of the star.
“The creative direction was not to mimic Aretha Franklin exactly, but for Jennifer to embody [her],” Martin tells L’OFFICIEL.
Ramos echoes a similar sentiment, adding, “We wanted to extract the essence of [Aretha] and also figure out how Jennifer is playing her. There are some glamorous moments in full Aretha tradition, but there are also some really beautifully imagined moments.”
In order to capture the Queen of Soul’s essence, the costume designer and makeup artist watched the 2018 documentary Amazing Grace and referenced old photographs of the star. Both wanted to connect with how Franklin as an individual, rather than a polished by-product of a music studio, dressed and presented herself.
“The thing that I found consistent among all of those photographs was how human she was,” Ramos shares. “That she wasn't like a slave to fashion, or she wasn't like a mannequin. She was very conscious of how she deployed clothing to express who she was. Every single picture, you'll see evidence of how there's something imperfect and beautiful about it. You can see the human being wanting to break free from the trappings of fashion.”
In particular, Ramos notes a black-and-white publicity photograph from Columbia Records where she’s in a pretty dress, but one of the straps has fallen off her shoulder and some of her hair isn’t in place. “She’s telling us, this is not me. There’s more to me than how what they’re trying to package me as,” Ramos says. “There’s a defiance to the way she wore clothes.”
Martin’s observations also reveal Franklin’s agency in shaping her own image. The singer wore minimal makeup, but had several key features that became a part of her signature look—smokey eyeliner on the bottom, winged liner on the top, and bronze-gold lipstick. Because the film covers several decades, Martin wanted to stay true to the different periods of her life. Based on photographs of Franklin, the MUA “took inventory of when she wore eyeshadow and when she didn’t, when her winged liner was intense and when it wasn’t, when she was sweating and when she wasn’t.” Plus, Franklin would sometimes draw on a mole, which appears occasionally throughout the movie if you look closely.
Fashion-wise, Ramos also wanted to reflect the different decades and the star’s evolution through the mostly bespoke wardrobe he created for Hudson. Franklin came from an affluent African American family—her father was the successful Reverend C.L. Franklin, a civil rights activist and friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—and her formative years are highlighted in the movie. It was exciting for Ramos to imagine “what Aretha would’ve looked like prior to being [famous], and for those young years, that was not only looking at what she wore but how she was wearing it, too.”
Franklin grew up in Detroit surrounded by the community of the New Bethel Baptist Church, where her father was a pastor. For the scenes showing her early life, Ramos chose a jewel-toned color palette. Then, we see Franklin’s wardrobe progress to pastels and brighter tones in the 1960s as she begins her solo career. For the ‘70s, Ramos selected a wardrobe of earth tones to ground her in her womanhood.
An icon whose career intersected with the civil rights and feminist movements, Franklin’s success story as a Black woman remains a poignant part of American history. Overcoming personal obstacles and trauma, the chart-topping artist went on to create hits like “Think” and “Respect,” which remain empowering anthems for women everywhere. Of course, Franklin also went on to become the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A major part of Franklin’s authentic image was how she embraced her body and identity as a real woman. She owned her curves, and on stage, Franklin sweat—visible proof of her exertion as a powerhouse performer. For the movie, Martin had to recreate the illusion of sweat on Hudson as Franklin belts out under hot stage lights. The trick was mixing Tatcha’s Dewy Skin Mist with Mac’s Lipglass to get the right consistency for faux beads of sweat that show on camera without ruining the integrity of the rest of her makeup.
Another key moment in which Franklin’s spirit shines through Hudson is on stage in a glamorous cream-colored beaded gown. According to Ramos, the dress weighs between 40 to 50 pounds and took the longest to build because it was entirely hand-beaded. “Not only does it fit Jennifer beautifully, it also echoes that it takes a village to make a film like this,” the costume designer says, referring to the dress’ extensive design process that included the draper, pattern-maker, seamstresses, and more.
With Martin and Ramos thoughtfully shaping how Hudson embodies Franklin, the audience sees both the stunning star and her more intimate side. “We've really respected Aretha's journey and humanized the icon,” Ramos says.
