Weeks ago, Jennifer Hudson received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and she’s showing no signs of slowing down!
Hudson posed for the latest issue of Net-A-Porter delivering old Hollywood glam, draped in everything from Oscar de la Renta to Herve Leger. But inside, she talked about Whitney Houston passing over her torch.
“As a girl I’d sit in my momma’s house and sing ‘I Will Always Love You.’ That’s why [singing in tribute] was so overwhelming,” said Hudson. “I’m just grateful I got to meet Whitney. She came backstage and was like ‘I turn my torch over to you; you are The One.’ I was like ‘Oh my God! Did anybody else hear that?’ Had she not given me her blessing, I would have never stepped on that stage.”
And yes, there’s lots of pressure to perform. But Hudson says people often forget that getting to the spotlight is one challenge and maintaining a career is even more difficult.
“What I feel about people you never hear from again is that they get too caught up in the hype,” explained the Grammy winner. “They think that just getting here is making it. No, it’s not making it. It’s like a losing-weight situation: it’s one thing to lose it, but it’s another to keep it off. Well, it’s one thing to make it, but it’s another thing to stay. [That is] why you have to constantly do stuff to keep people’s attention. It’s a hustle, it really is.”
The star’s latest project, Black Nativity, is the first musical that she’s done since Dreamgirls. “I turned down I don’t know how many musicals. What drew me to this is that it’s a holiday film: I’m a holiday fanatic. It’s uplifting—we don’t have enough of that in the world,” said Hudson.