Before Kesha hit it big as a music star, she was an extra with her “hair teased to the gods” in Dreamgirls.
The singer-songwriter appeared on Tuesday’s episode of Jennifer Hudson’s eponymous daytime talk show, where she surprised the host with the revelation. “I’ve seen you perform before but we’ve never got a chance to meet,” Hudson said. “And I heard that we almost crossed paths.”
“I was an extra on Dreamgirls,” Kesha told a stunned Hudson, who starred in the movie. “Serious. Bible. For like $120, for 16 hours, I sat there with my hair teased to the gods. Oh my God, no offense, I hated it.”
Hudson quipped, “I’m gonna go rewind it back and try to spot you in the film. This is amazing.”
David James/Dreamworks/Kobal/Shutterstock
Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Hudson in ‘Dream Girls’
Kesha, full name Kesha Sebert, recalled being an extra in a big auditorium in downtown Los Angeles during one particular day of filming. “Y’all were amazing,” she said.
“I don’t remember the name of the theater, but we shot everything in downtown L.A.,” Hudson confirmed. “That’s for sure.”
Hudson starred opposite Beyoncé and Anika Noni Rose in the 2006 musical from director Bill Condon, which featured the trio as a musical group, the Dreamettes, discovered by an ambitious manager (Jamie Foxx). They’re offered the chance of the lifetime to open for a music superstar (Eddie Murphy), but soon learn about the cost of fame when their manager takes creative control and launches them into the spotlight, forcing one of the girls out as another becomes a big star.
Hudson won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film, which was adapted from the Broadway musical of the same name. Dreamgirls earned eight Oscars nominations in all, and also won Best Sound Mixing.
Kesha would break out a couple years later with her hit song “Tik Tok,” from her debut studio album, Animal. As she told Hudson, though, her musical journey began “in the womb,” as her mother, Pepe Sebert, is a songwriter. Kesha also reflected on the success of “Tik Tok,” admitting that she didn’t expect it to be such a smash.
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“It was weird because the dumber it got, the better it got,” she said of writing the song. “When I listened to the final product, I was like, ‘This is too dumb.’ And it’s 1.5 billion streams at this point.”
Kesha is currently gearing up for the release of her sixth album, Period, which marks her first album as an independent artist with full creative control of her work under her own label, Kesha Records. “I’m really excited for the world to hear this,” she told Hudson. “A lot of hard work, a lot of joy really coming back home to myself and feeling what freedom really looks like, feels like, sounds like.”
Watch Kesha on The Jennifer Hudson Show above.
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