Biopics are hard work – the tightrope balance of fact versus dramatization of a person’s life. In this case it was Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul. Writers must juggle audience expectation with telling a good story. This year honored Aretha Franklin on two platforms – an eight-part series called Genius (profiling the greatest innovators of our time) and a musical feature called Respect chronicling Aretha’s search for identity and expression through her music. Tracey Scott Wilson, screenwriter of Respect spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about capturing the essence of Aretha Franklin onto the big screen.
Respect was originally set up with Callie Khouri (Nashville, Thelma And Louise) who partially wrote the first draft and slated to direct. When scheduling conflicts caused Khouri to depart the project, Tracey Scott Wilson (Fosse/Verde, The Americans) was hired to do a page one rewrite after consulting with Callie. The writer had little more than a month to complete the script because the shooting schedule had already been set.
It was no accident that Tracey Scott Wilson was chosen to rewrite the screenplay. “I’m a preacher’s kid and I grew up in the church,” she said. “When I was ten, I knew Aretha’s Amazing Grace album very well because I’d heard it so many times.” She knew the world intimately and it uniquely suited her to appreciate Aretha’s spiritual journey.
Tracey Scott Wilson
“Our pitch to MGM was to show Aretha at age ten when she first sang a her father’s parties and then at age thirty at the time of her recording the Amazing Grace album,” Tracey continued. It was essential to set these parameters in exploring Aretha Franklin’s life early on because her career had such an enormous scope.
Tracey Scott Wilson set out to deconstruct the makings of the Queen Of Soul. “When you think of an icon, you think of someone who’s in control, feminine, and not afraid to speak her mind. Aretha (Jennifer Hudson) eventually completed that journey through a lot of struggle.” Real life was markedly different and often tragic for Aretha, especially her relationship with men, her father C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker) and the politics of the day.
Aretha defined her speaking voice through song
When the screenwriter began her draft she avoided looking at the Queen of Soul through the lens of an icon, but more as a character in a movie. During her research, Tracey discovered the influences present in Aretha’s life.
“Aretha grew up surrounded by musical luminaries of her day such as Smokey Robinson, Miles Davis and Diana Ross.” These heavyweights shaped the musical future of ten year old Aretha. Aretha was also a serious jazz musician.
Not every aspect of Aretha’s life could be included in Respect due to time restraints. “I didn’t want to do the Wikipedia version of her life,” added the writer. Moreover, Aretha Franklin was a very private person so many aspects of personal life were hidden from the public eye.
Aretha and Ted Get Married
Aretha’s tumultuous marriage and relationship with her father were handled sensitively based on all the information Tracey Scott Wilson had at her disposal. “Aretha never talked about them much. It was important to portray her relationship with Ted White (Marlon Wayans) as two people falling in love and getting married.”
The writer wanted to show two people who deeply cared for each other before it went bad. “I watched a lot of videos and read as much as I could about Ted and the relationships of that time in Detroit to show who he was.” This afforded Tracey Scott Wilson the opportunity to give herself some poetic license rather than fabricate the story.
Aretha Franklin (Jennifer Hudson) and C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker) Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert
There were many critical events that contoured Aretha’s life. Aretha lost her mother at age ten and had her first child at age twelve. “Her father was a complicated figure in her life, but she rose above it.” Despite the emotional abuse she suffered, C.L. truly loved his daughter and wanted the best for her. It was curious that someone so talented allowed her father to fuel her self-doubt. It would be wrong to easily dismiss C.L. as a bad father because his actions were modeled on the male figures in his life.
The same held true for her husband Ted, who always had her best interests at heart. “Men of the day were limited in their ability to grow and change. By physically and emotionally lashing out at Aretha, they were showing their own pain.” Tracey Scott Wilson similarly examined her own feelings of self-doubt while writing Respect.
Aretha expressed her pain through song
Aretha’s ability to channel all her emotions through song made her reticent to speak much. “When Aretha sang Respect, it was a direct reflection of the words that she couldn’t speak.” Her aspirational songs were also elevated by her ability to fuse gospel and blues music with her own sound into something new. “She could have been compared to Ella Fitzgerald, but musically, Aretha Franklin held her own. It was rare for female singers to also play.”
Similar to Aretha’s thorny relationship with her father and husband, she also had a complicated relationship to god. This interpretation of faith at church often meant that there was often a disconnect between what was preached and a deity. The church stripped Aretha of her feminism, free-thinking, and political thought. This contrasted with her internal perception of god which drove her to music.
“As a preacher kid, you have to find your faith on your own. Aretha figured out a way to make her faith part of her changing self,” added Scott Wilson.
Amazing Grace has been described as the pinnacle of Aretha Franklin’s career – the merging of faith and music. “As an artist you tap into the thing that is the focus of who you are. Everything came together artistically and personally, and Aretha created her signature piece. She brought all this back to the church with her.”
Tracey Scott Wilson believes the scenes leading up to Aretha Franklin’s decision to record the Amazing Grace album were the most essential in defining her rise as the Queen of Soul and finding herself. She truly reached into the souls of her fans and touched them deeply. She spoke to them.
The film closed with Aretha (the movie character) handing over the microphone to Aretha (the singer) with footage of her singing (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman at President Obama’s inauguration ceremony.
