The song "Respect" was originally written and recorded by Otis Redding. After Aretha Franklin's version became popular, Redding would joke that it was "a song that a girl took away from me" whenever he performed it live.
Kimberly Scott, who portrayed Aretha's grandmother, is five months younger than Forest Whitaker, who portrayed her son, C. L. Franklin.
Both Jennifer Hudson and Aretha Franklin had parents who were victims of homicide. In 1979, Franklin's father, C.L. Franklin, was shot twice at point-blank range in his Detroit home. He lapsed into a coma and died in 1984. In 2008, Hudson's mother, Darnell Donnerson, was fatally shot at her Chicago home, along with Hudson's brother and 7-year-old nephew (who was kidnapped, then found dead a few days later).
This will be the third film in which Jennifer Hudson and Forest Whitaker played daughter and father. The others were Winged Creatures (2008) and Black Nativity (2013).
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