Cynthia Erivo portrays Aretha Franklin in upcoming miniseries, Genius: Aretha, but Franklin's family say the programme makers "disrespected" them. Photo /National Geographic via AP
Cynthia Erivo portrays Aretha Franklin in upcoming miniseries, Genius: Aretha, but Franklin's family say the programme makers "disrespected" them. Photo /National Geographic via AP
The life of singing legend Aretha Franklin is the focus of Genius: Aretha, a new NatGeo limited series, starring Cynthia Erivo in the lead role.
The series is highly anticipated by many, but those who were closest to the late singer are not happy at all. Franklin's relatives are insisting their attempts to work with the programme-makers were snubbed and they are now calling on fans to boycott the show.
Aretha's granddaughter Grace Franklin said in a video shared on TikTok: "As the immediate family, we feel that it's important to be involved with any biopic of my grandma's life, as it's hard to get any accurate depiction of anyone's life without speaking to the ones closest to them.
Cynthia Erivo (left) portrays Aretha Franklin (right) in the National Geographic miniseries Genius: Aretha, but Franklin's family are encouraging fans to boycott the series. Photo / AP / Supplied
"During the process of writing, directing, and filming this movie, we've reached out to Genius as a family on multiple occasions, where we have been disrespected and told we will not be worked with.
"As the immediate family — emphasis on immediate — we do not support this film and we ask that you also do not support this film, as we feel extremely disrespected, and we feel there will be many inaccuracies about my grandmother's life."
Grace's message echoes comments recently made by her father, Kecalf Franklin, who suggested the series could be based on "untruth or slander".
He told Rolling Stone magazine: "What we've found out in the past is that usually when people don't want to work with you, that is a prelude to some type of unprofessional behaviour or a prelude to some type of untruth or slander, so we're not quite sure where we're going to see in this series.
"That's usually the case when people say that they don't want to work with you."
Production on Genius began in 2019, less than a year after the Queen of Soul died of cancer. Kecalf explained that communication between the family and NatGeo ended after his cousin, Sabrina Garrett-Owens, resigned from her post as representative of Aretha's estate.
By the time she left her position, the family and the network hadn't reached an agreement on their involvement in the series, but when the relatives attempted to put something in place, Kecalf claimed their approaches were rejected.
He said: "We had our lawyers reach out to them and see if we could have some type of input and see the film and say what we like and what we didn't like about it.
"And the report that we got back was saying that it was too late, production had already wrapped up and that they didn't want to work with us. It was basically too late.
"It seems as if the final editing hadn't been done, that there was something that could have been done in that area, maybe after we had previewed it. They did send a non-disclosure agreement but the terms in that contract, they weren't giving us creative control or anything like that as well. So it's kind of like they just wanted us to check it out. But if we didn't like it then, 'oh well. Sorry.'"
Cynthia Erivo, the actress who portrays Aretha Franklin in the miniseries Genius: Aretha says she was "in shock" when offered the role. Photo / National Geographic via AP
NatGeo insisted they had told Aretha's story in an "honest and authentic way" and shared the "goal" of the family to "celebrate" the Natural Woman hitmaker.
They said in a statement: "We think we have a shared goal here – to honour and celebrate the life and legacy of Aretha Franklin. We can tell you that everyone who worked on Genius: Arethaapproached telling her story with the intention to respect Ms Franklin in every aspect of the series and in every decision we made. The studio worked diligently to attain the endorsement of Aretha's estate, which we are grateful to have.
"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."
