Aretha Franklin’s Family Reject New Genius Biopic

Aretha Franklin’s family have spoken out against the new Genius biopic series depicting the star, saying they “do not support” it.

The series has been produced by National Geographic and stars Cynthia Erivo as the late soul singer. The channel said it had permission to make the “tribute to Aretha’s genius”.

But the family say they were cut out of the production process and asked fans to boycott it, saying: “This is about common, decent respect for our family.”

Franklin’s granddaughter Grace recently posted on TikTok about the show and her family’s feelings on it.

“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,” she said.

“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 that 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.”

Aretha Franklin was one of the biggest stars of pop, soul, gospel and R&B, who scored more than 100 hit singles on the US Billboard charts.

A separate big-screen biopic of her life was already in production when she died of pancreatic cancer in 2018. Starring Jennifer Hudson, it has been produced with input from the family and is due to hit screens later this year.