Aretha Franklin’s family is unhappy with the latest portrayal of the music legend.
The ‘Respect’ singer is the subject of the third season of National Geographic’s popular anthology ‘Genius’, which airs two episodes on Tuesday and concludes the season on Wednesday with two more episodes.
Oscar-nominated Cynthia Erivo plays the Queen of Soul while Courtney B. Vance plays her father, the famous preacher CL Franklin.
“Genius: Aretha” delves deep into the Franklin family’s dramatic past, including depictions of alleged domestic violence from the musician’s ex-husband Ted White and CL’s alleged sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl.
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According to Franklin’s granddaughter, Grace, the singer’s family is unhappy with the series, which shared her opinions in a recent TikTok post.
The track began with Grace, 15, and a group of people, including more of Franklin’s family members who “This movie should go.”
During her statement, Grace refers to ‘Genius: Aretha’ as a movie rather than a miniseries, but specifically accuses the program of frustrating her family.
“As the immediate family, we feel it’s important to be involved in any biography of my grandmother’s life, because it’s hard to get an accurate picture of someone’s life without talking to the closest to them,” Grace began.
“While writing, directing and filming this film, we released ‘Genius’ as a family on several occasions where we despised and said we were not cooperating,” she continued. “As the immediate family – the emphasis on immediate – we do not support this film, and we ask that you do not support this film either, because we feel extremely contemptuous and we feel that there will be many inaccuracies about my grandmother’s life. . you. ‘
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In the caption of the video, Grace explained that she “has no grievances with the actors / actresses in any of these films.”
Grace’s father, Kecalf, recently spoke to Rolling Stone and supported his daughter’s statement.
“What we’re found out in the past is that usually when people do not want to work with you, it’s a prediction for some kind of unprofessional behavior or a prediction for some kind of untruth or slander, so we are not very sure where we’re going to see in this series, ” he said, noting that he had seen nothing of ‘Genius.’
Kecalf explained that his family was in contact with ‘Genius’ about their involvement, but the talks went through the time when his cousin, Sabrina Garrett-Owens, resigned as a representative of the estate. They were repulsed when they reached out again, he said.
“We let our lawyers contact us and see if we could make some contribution and see the film and say what we like and what we don’t like,” he said. “And the report that we came back said that it was too late, that the production was already finished and that they did not want to cooperate with us.”
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The miniseries went live in 2018, not long after Franklin’s death.
“However, I felt it was not too late, because of the period in which the film would go down and also the period we reached out to them,” Kecalf added. “It seems that the final editing has not been done, that something could have been done in the area, maybe after we have looked at it beforehand. They did send a non-disclosure agreement, but the terms of the contract gave us also not given creative control or anything like that. So it’s like they just wanted us to check it out. But if we did not like it, ‘Oh woe. Sorry.’
Kecalf said he is not aware of any similarity between Franklin’s estate and production, as the estate is an entity that is not the immediate family. The estate would also have handled the licensing of Franklin’s music, and the family’s desired involvement was not financially motivated, he said.
Aretha Franklin, played by Cynthia Erivo, at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL. (Credit: National Geographic / Richard DuCree)
“It’s about general, decent respect for our family,” he added. “If I were to make a film about your family, I would try to talk to you, your sons, daughters, grandchildren and people like that. And we just never felt that we got a chance to talk to them freely. our family member. ‘
NatGeo offered a statement to Fox News acknowledging that Franklin’s family was not involved.
“We have received the message from the family, we hear them and acknowledge their concern about Franklin’s legacy,” a network representative said. “We think we have a shared purpose here – to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of Aretha Franklin. We can tell you that everyone who worked on Genius: Aretha approached her story to respect the story for Franklin in every aspect of the series and in every decision we make. ‘
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“The studio has worked diligently to obtain the approval of Aretha’s estate, for which we are grateful,” the statement read. “We worked with many people who knew Ms. Franklin – from Clive Davis to members of her family’s estate – to make sure we told her story in an honest and authentic way. This series is called Genius – it is a tribute to Aretha’s genius – something we hope we can all celebrate. One of the comments from a guest who attended our premiere last week was: ‘Aretha has lived so many lives … she has 100 biophotos needed !. ‘ We can not say it better! ‘
According to Rolling Stone, they approach their research for production in the same way as the previous two seasons, which focused on Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso.
Kecalf offered Stone another statement after reading NatGeo’s.
Aretha Franklin is played by Cynthia Erivo in ‘Genius: Aretha’. Franklin’s family has made it clear that they do not want to keep Erivo bad.
(Getty Images)
“The Genius series was started by my cousin Sabrina Garrett-Owens and her board, David Bennett,” he said. “When my brothers and I became aware of this project, the Genius series started production. We believe that the manufacturers of this series did not take the necessary steps to prepare properly for this production. Most creative people start with a topic immediate family to produce the most authentic and honest version of the person’s life. In our opinion, the Genius series did not succeed. Neither I nor my brothers have ever worked with the producers. “We are talking about this series. We agree that our mother’s life work should be celebrated but with respect.”
However, Bennett told Rolling Stone that producers of “Genius” Garrett-Owens were not involved in making the series.
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“We do not know what the heirs, or their representatives or the current administration of the estate undertook,” he added. [Garrett-Owens’] resignation and thereafter all heirs of the estate knew of the project and had the opportunity to consult the producers about their concerns or to inquire. “
Kecalf acknowledges that the studio may have skipped a step in a communication bug, which led to the family not being involved. He also said that although he is not aware that any family members are participating, it is possible that some of his cousins did.
Franklin is the subject of ‘Respect’, an upcoming film starring Jennifer Hudson, who was chosen by the song “The Chain of Fools” to portray her. According to Kecalf, they worked much easier with MGM on the film.
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“We’re actually working with MGM and … they’re trying to negotiate and work with us on their film,” he said. “I really can not talk about the one, because we are still in negotiations with them.”
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Reps to NatGeo, Erivo and Reginald M. Turner, the attorney representing Franklin’s estate, did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment, and neither did MGM. Franklin’s family could not be reached immediately.