deena jones singer

The filmmakers insisted on casting a relative unknown in the role, paralleling the casting of then-21-year-old Jennifer Holliday in that role for the original Broadway production. The group is composed of full-figured lead singer Effie White and best friends, Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson. Offstage, Effie becomes infatuated with the slick-talking Curtis while the married Jimmy begins an affair with Lorrell. Mark and Condon began pre-production with the intentions of casting Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy, both actors with record industry experience, as Curtis Taylor, Jr. and James "Thunder" Early, respectively. Among this footage was one whole musical number, C.C.

R&B production team The Underdogs served as the producers of "One Night … Warner planned to go ahead with the film with director Joel Schumacher and screenwriter Tina Andrews in the late 1990s, following the success of Touchstone Pictures's Tina Turner biopic Schumacher planned to have Lauryn Hill portray Deena and Kelly Price play Effie. Although rehearsals ended just before Christmas 2005, Condon called Hudson back for a week of one-on-one rehearsals, to help her more fully become the "diva" character of Effie. Principal photography was completed in the early-morning hours of April 8, 2006, after four days were spent shooting Jennifer Hudson's musical number "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" which had purposefully been saved until the end of the shoot. Though Barrino emerged as an early frontrunner for the part, Hudson was eventually selected to play Effie, leading Barrino to telephone Hudson and jokingly complain that Hudson "Hudson was required to gain twenty pounds for the role which marked her debut film performance.

I think a lot of women can relate to the lyrics. An extended "director's cut" is currently planned for release in the future. Curtis eventually drops Effie (who has just learned she is pregnant with Curtis' child) from the group, hiring his secretary girlfriend, Jackie Morris (Dianna Agron) to take her place which Effie finds out before anyone can tell her.

For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click Comments are subject to our community guidelines, which can be viewed Deana's rendition of Back to Black by Amy Winehouse won her a place in the next stage of the competition "Everyone has a moment when they decide they’re taking control of their life. A total of 783 singing actresses auditioned for the role of Effie White, among them American Idol alumnae Fantasia Barrino and Jennifer Hudson, former Disney star Raven-Symoné, and Broadway stars Capathia Jenkins and Patina Miller. Outside of the U.S., Dreamgirls opened in Australia on January 18, and in the United Kingdom on February 2. The two had dinner with Geffen and successfully convinced him to allow Condon to write a screenplay for Dreamgirls. transform the Dreams into a top selling mainstream pop act by 1965. In casting Hudson, Condon recalled that he initially was not confident he'd made the right decision, but instinctively cast Hudson after she'd auditioned several times because he "After Hudson was cast in November 2005, the Dreamgirls cast began extensive rehearsals with Condon and choreographers Fatima Robinson and Aakomon "AJ" Jones, veterans of the music video industry. "Listen" was the first official single from the soundtrack, supported by a music video featuring Beyoncé. When offered the part of Curtis, Foxx initially declined because DreamWorks could not meet his salary demands. She was later nominated for a Golden Globe award for the role. Feeling that Effie's large figure and distinctive voice will not attract white audiences, Curtis appoints the slimmer and higher-voiced Deena lead singer and renames the group "The Dreams." Holliday in particular objected to the fact that her 1982 recording of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" was used in an early Dreamgirls film teaser trailer created before production began. The production ran into problems when Houston wanted to sing both Deena and Effie's songs (particularly "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going") and the film was eventually abandoned.

"Speaking about her character, Beyonce also told chat show host Oprah Winfrey: "This is the moment where Deena finally finds her voice"The whole movie she's been manipulated and she's kind of lost her own opinions. When Jimmy has a breakdown onstage at Rainbow's tenth anniversary TV special the following year, dropping his pants in front of the audience and live TV cameras, Curtis drops him from the label and Lorrell ends their long affair. "But Bey dismissed apparent similarities between her and her character at the time, telling IndieLondon: "If you look from the outside you might think that Deena and I are very similar...But if you look really closely, we’re very different.