There’s a scene in the big-screen biopic Respect where Jennifer Hudson’s Aretha Franklin takes control in the studio, putting her artistic vision on her sister Carolyn Franklin’s tune “Ain’t No Way.” To that point, in the film at least, Aretha has navigated her rise to stardom, beginning on the gospel circuit, with the help of and despite some imposing male figures in her life — her father, the Reverend C.L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker), and her controlling husband/manager, Ted White (Marlon Wayans).
Seated at the piano, Hudson, preordained to play the Queen of turn, gently amps up Aretha’s confidence to take control of the song’s direction. It’s a turning point in the film where “Respect” becomes more than a song title and something Aretha realizes she has the power to command. The scene is also, not incidentally, a nod to Franklin (and Hudson) as LGBTQ+ icons considering Carolyn Franklin was a lesbian and it’s widely assumed the song was intended for a woman — a stealth queer anthem, as it were.
