And then when she comes out, that all sort of falls away. And at one point it’s like she’s going to take flight. I think one of my favorite, favorite performances is when she sings “Amazing Grace.” If you just watch very closely, she stood by James Cleveland and James Cleveland is holding her hand. But I think when you go back and you listen to these songs and you place them where they where they were sung and when they were set, they reveal something about who she is. For Aretha, it was storytelling for her, because she didn’t reveal very much about herself to anybody. I know it sounds cliché to say, but music and songwriting and singing is storytelling. There’s such a wonderful human progression that I think people don’t realize is actually the power behind her music. And for some reason, she kept the faith, she kept confidence and belief in herself and kept moving forward and found her sound, found out who she was. There was a whole 15 to 20 year period where it just wasn’t working. I think that there’s something special about someone who just keeps trying, and she kept trying, she kept moving forward, even when it didn’t work. And I think people forget that she was doing that all while being a mother - a young mother - and it took time. It took a long time for her to find out who she was as a human being. Most people know her as the already famed Queen of Soul - and not many people realize how much work it took to get there not just actual work, but like, personal, human work. And I wonder what it was that you most wanted to reveal about her? There is this tension in the show between the public Aretha and the private one. And I was interested in finding out who Aretha was as a person, as a human being - and being able to do that as her just felt like it made me closer. I take on people that I may not have had the chance to really get to know and meet. It’s not that I take on iconic roles for the pressure.
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