GENIUS: ARETHA
HOW CYNTHIA ERIVO POURED HER SOUL INTO GENIUS: ARETHA…
Cynthia Erivo on getting in tune as the Queen of Soul.
For the third season of Genius, the scripted biographical anthology shifts focus from male innovators to music’s undisputed queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, whose music underscored America’s ongoing ’60s struggle with both women’s rights and civil rights. As embodied by contemporary powerhouse Cynthia Erivo, the series reveals new layers to Franklin’s singular talent.
Cynthia, how did you approach playing an icon?
CYNTHIA ERIVO (ARETHA
FRANKLIN): I love Aretha. I’ve been listening to her since I was little. And I learned to sing and tell stories that way, by listening to her. You approach it by paying attention to the music, listening to her voice, listening to how she communicates with her music. Reading. I was lucky because there’s this amazing documentary, Amazing Grace, which is a really wonderful look at the relationship she has with people and the way she communicates, the way she is with others. And I’ve been poring over lots of her interviews to find her cadence.
How did you quantify the differences between your voice and hers?
CE: I think the difference is that both of us had different life experiences and different relationships with music. I guess a lot of my voice comes from her, because I’ve been listening to her for such a long time. She definitely had years on me in her experience with her voice. But I think that being able to learn her voice and get into the intricacies of what she does with it, because there is genius in that, is eyeopening. I learned how to use my voice in a completely different way, which I’m really thrilled about.
Why is Aretha worthy of the ‘Genius’ moniker?
SUZAN-LORI PARKS (EXEC
PRODUCER): One of the questions when we started working on this project was, “Is Aretha Franklin a genius?” The answer, of course, is a resounding yes. Aretha made art that is timeless, that endures, that runs through the fabric of all of our lives. But she was also all about what the series should be doing and does do.
It’s inclusive and it ignites the genius in each and every one of us.
Were there biopic tropes you tried to steer away from?
SP: We wanted to tell the truth about the life of Aretha Franklin through the lens of genius. It’s not just about the cradle-to-grave story. It’s about reminding us that genius is not just some isolated thing that should be kept in an ivory tower, but that Americans – Black women, Black women who are also mothers, as with Aretha Franklin are geniuses.
Cynthia, how did singing live on set connect you to Aretha?
CE: Music is a real way to open up and to be vulnerable and to share the way one feels to express the things you can’t say. To be able to actually sing live means I can be in the moment, and I don’t have to manufacture it. It’s there in the words, in the lyrics, in the music, in the way I have to sing it. Tara Bennett