Cynthia Erivo Talks Channeling Essence, Playing a Genius at Work in ‘Genius: Aretha’

Awards Daily talks to Academy Award nominee (Harriet) and SAG nominee Cynthia Erivo about channeling the Queen of Soul’s essence in National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha.

Cynthia Erivo really excels at her voice work. Not just her incredible singing voice, but the way she changes its texture to suit the character she’s playing, including her performance as Aretha Franklin in National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha.

“In my head, I didn’t feel like I sounded like her,” says Erivo. “The aim wasn’t to sound like her but to try to get as much of her essence as I possibly could in my speaking voice. I knew that trying to mimic her wouldn’t work and wouldn’t be as grounded as I wanted it to be.”

So Erivo just gobbled up any Aretha content she could, from her interviews to her music. She’d listen to her speak and pick up the essence and style, the lilts that she would have and the breaths she would take.

“I knew her speaking would change over the years. So when you meet her in the very beginning in the 50s and 60s, when she’s just finding her feet, she’s very coy, barely says anything to anyone. Her interviews are one or two answers. But toward the ’80s and ’90s, she’s quite brash. The confidence is built because she knows who she is. By the time we get to the late ’90s/2000s, she’s gotten to a place where she knows she’s an icon and doesn’t really need to say anything if she doesn’t want to.”

“I Never Loved a Man” Scene

In the first episode of the limited series, we get a glimpse of how Aretha works when it comes to her music, as we watch her try to figure out what’s not working with the song “I Never Loved a Man (The Way That I Love You).” It’s fascinating to watch Erivo channel this genius at work, probably in the same way that audiences have been captivated by Apple+’s Beatles’ documentary Get Back. The only difference being that Aretha didn’t have three other geniuses to bounce ideas off of.

“When she goes to Muscle Shoals [sound studio], I don’t know if she knows what she’s really in for. It’s the moment where she has to trust that these new people will be patient enough to help her make something that she’s never made before. I don’t know that she trusts herself completely. But then she locks into the music that she wants to make, the sound that she wants to make, and the things that she wants to say. The thing about Aretha is that I think she was always telling us what was happening in her life through the music that she chose to sing and the words she chose to use, and I think I just tapped into that. I know as a singer that sometimes the best way to tell a story is through song, because it’s the most honest you can be. I think ‘I Never Loved a Man’ is one of those songs.”

During that scene, Aretha faces pressure to not only put forth a quality song, but also to lead everyone who believes she’s talented to create something from scratch.

“There’s nothing like having eyes on you when you’re not sure. So you have to play with that and learn about what it is that makes her become sure, and that’s the understanding of what the story is that she wants to tell.”

While Aretha never had any confidence issues involving her music and what she was capable of doing, the limited series pulls back the curtain on the vulnerabilities of the Queen of Soul. She had severe trust issues related to her relationships, which is highlighted in a trustfall scene, where she can’t have faith that future-husband Glynn (Luke James) will catch her.

“When a person’s been hurt and their trust has been bruised, it is hard to let go, and I think she’s one of those people who just doesn’t trust easily. It’s why she gets paid before she does her concerts. It’s why she asks them to pay her in cash. It’s why she carries a purse around with her all the time. This was a woman who became a mother by the time she was 12. Her trust has been misused. She’s having to do years of mending and those things take time. I don’t know if it was ever easy for her to trust anyone, which is why it’s hard for her to let go.”

One of the series’ surprising revelations is that Aretha had high hopes to break into acting, with this scene hinting that maybe something was holding her back. The only time she’s ever really able to be free is when she’s performing music.

“When you watch The Blues Brothers, that scene where she sings ‘Think’, the only time you feel like she’s completely letting go is when she’s singing. When she opens her mouth to sing, it all comes out. It’s the most vulnerable she can be, the most honest she can be.”

Genius: Aretha is available on National Geographic.