Yahoo Movies Yvette Nicole Brown Tells Jennifer Hudson She Auditioned for Effie in Dreamgirls Before Her
Yvette Nicole Brown and Jennifer Hudson share a Dreamgirls connection!
During the Disenchanted actress' appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show Tuesday, Brown, 51, revealed that she originally auditioned for Hudson's role as Effie White in the 2006 movie before Hudson, 41, won the role and eventually an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 79th Oscars.
"I auditioned for Effie, way in the beginning, way before, long long, and so for the longest time they hadn't cast you yet," Brown told Hudson, who appeared not to know the story's details.
"So [Dreamgirls director] Bill Condon would call and go, 'Yvette can you come in and do a screen test with someone, can you come in and do a storyboard for the movie?' " Brown added.
Brown went on to explain that she and "two other people" worked on preliminary material for the movie until other lead cast members Beyoncé and Anika Noni Rose were cast. While the Community alum did not wind up playing Effie, director Condon did give Brown a role in the movie that can only be found in the Dreamgirls director's cut.
RELATED: Why Retta Skipped Her Audition for Dreamgirls — and What She Learned About the 'Fear of Success'
Chris Millard/Warner Bros.
"Now, you have not seen me in Dreamgirls because my part was cut," Brown told Hudson's audience. "All that remains is a picture of me walking with Jamie Foxx across the lobby in a horrible pollster suit."
"That's from the director's cut, because I got cut out of the film, but yeah, that's my Dreamgirls story," she added, as Hudson displayed a still image of her and Foxx in character.
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"So you almost took my role?" Hudson joked about Brown's story, prompting the actress to respond: "Girl, ain't nobody take no role from you, are you crazy?"
David James/Dreamworks
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"I was in the theater, you know you lose a role and you're sad, so I was in the theater and [at] the first note of 'And I Am Telling You' I said 'well, that's why she got it,' " Brown said, as she recalled watching Dreamgirls for the first time.
" 'I can't feel bad, she's about to win an Oscar,' " the actress recalled thinking. "I just knew it. I knew it."
Dreamgirls, which also starred Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover and Sharon Leal and featured John Lithgow and John Krasinski, was nominated for eight Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards and also won for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing.
Former Parks and Recreation star Retta said in 2018 that she was also considered to play Effie in Dreamgirls, though she noted she decided not to audition due to her own "fear of success."
