Jennifer Hudson has seen some very bad days and some very good days. But through it all, the American Idol alumna has stayed grounded — and that means not caring about how the media portrays her.
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Hudson spoke with PrideSource about her performance of “Same Love,” alongside Macklemore and Mary Lambert, at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards — and the rumors she did so because she herself is gay.
“People were like, ‘Is Jennifer trying to tell us something?’ Hey, I wasn’t, but if you wanna think that, it’s all right with me,” she said. “When I got the call [to perform the song], I was like, ‘Oh my God, I definitely wanna do this. A powerful statement is being made and I wanna be a part of that.'”
Hudson said the song inspired her, but so did the “the independence and the confidence” of the LGBT community and the steps they have taken in recent years.
“I’m so inspired by that, and I feel like, for me, that is my connection,” she said. “I’ve never understood, gosh, what does the gay community see in me? You know what I mean? Because again, I grew up around a lot of that and that’s the world that embraced me first, so that I’ve never fully gathered.”
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Hudson made her mark on American Idol, but didn’t really become a Hollywood star until Dreamgirls. She said the role in the film also gave her a whole new fan base. She explained that, “A lot of gay men I’ve met, they’re like, ‘In my heart, I am Effie.’ I relate to Effie, and I think that’s part of the connection. It’s a real situation that we all go through.”
Hudson’s new album, JHUD, will be out Sept. 23.
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