PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • MARCH 18 - 24, 2021
Erivo channels the
Queen of Soul in NatGeo’s
‘Genius: Aretha’
BY GEORGE DICKIE
Cynthia Erivo
stars in “Genius:
Aretha,” premiering
Sunday on National
Geographic.
Anyone who has heard Cynthia Erivo sing
on stage or in film knows she has the pipes to
play Aretha Franklin.
And she’s a fan. Growing up in London,
the Tony-, Grammy- and Emmy-winning
singer and actress (“Harriet,” “Bad Times at
the El Royale”) listened to her records, sang
her songs and paid attention to the subtleties
in her voice. In the end, it turned out to be
perfect training for “Genius: Aretha.”
Premiering Sunday, March 21, on National
Geographic with double-stacked episodes
across four consecutive nights (and also
available for streaming the next day on Hulu),
the eight-episode third installment of the
“Genius” anthology franchise explores the
career and musical brilliance of the artist
otherwise known as the “Queen of Soul,” who
sold more than 75 million records worldwide
and won 18 Grammy Awards among myriad
accolades before her death in 2018.
Also starring Courtney B. Vance (“American
Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson”),
Malcolm Barrett (“Timeless”) and David
Cross (“Mr. Show”), the series tells the story
of a musical prodigy raised in Detroit in
the 1940s and ‘50s, who taught herself to
play the piano despite not being able to read
music. At age 12, she began to record gospel
music and go on tour with her father and at
18 she had her first record deal. By 24, she
was at Atlantic Records, where she recorded
many of her most iconic songs, compositions
that young singers like Erivo cherished.
“I love Aretha,” Erivo says. “... I learned to
sing and tell stories... by listening to her. So
you approach (the role) by paying attention
to the music, listening to her voice, listening
to how she communicates with her music.
Reading.”
The actress also gained much insight on
her character from the 2018 documentary
“Amazing Grace,” which she says is “a really
wonderful look into the relationship she has
with people and the way she communicates,
the way she is with others. I’ve been poring
over lots of her interviews to find out her
cadence and just different things really. I get
to be a geek of something I really love, but
that’s how I’ve been getting into her.”
And she also did a lot of singing, regardless
of whether the cameras were rolling. On
the series’ set, director/executive producer
Anthony Hemingway (“Underground”)
encouraged Erivo to vocalize as Franklin as
she saw fit in an effort to help her connect
with her character.
“Music is a real way to open up and to be
vulnerable and to share the way one feels
(and) to express the things that you can’t say,”
Erivo explains. “And so, to be able to actually
sing live means that I can be in the moment
and I don’t have to manufacture it. And it’s
there in the words, in the lyrics, in the music,
in the way I have to sing it. So, for me, it’s a
gift, a true gift to be able to sing live on set,
truly.”
Guide to the TV grids
TV Ratings:
‘G’: General audience
‘Y’: Young children
‘7’: Children over 7
‘14’: Children over 14
‘PG’: Parental guidance
‘M’: Mature audience only
PA: Parental advisory
DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
Common symbols :
HD scheduling, please
note:
’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
iTV: Interactive TV program
N: Program is new
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