Jennifer Hudson hesitated before agreeing to star in Spike Lee's new movie 'Chi-raq'.
Jennifer Hudson
The actress plays the mother of a young girl killed by gunfire in the film but admitted her own personal tragedy - Jennifer's mother Darnell Donaldson, brother Jason and seven-year-old nephew Julian King were murdered by her sister's estranged husband William Balfour - left her unsure if the role was something she could take on.
She told W magazine: "It's like, you're asking a lot. This is reality for me. This is my life. A part of my life. And I definitely had that moment of like, 'Are you serious?' But when I really thought about it, I understood why he came to me and I thought, 'You know what? It's worth me telling my story so that hopefully no one else has a story like this to tell.' The film we're doing is trying to save my city, as my mother said, take care of home. So for that reason I was like, 'Okay, I get it, it's worth doing.' But I don't think it's anything I will ever, ever revisit again."
Speaking about gun violence in America, Jennifer, 34, added: "If we didn't have these issues, I don't think a movie like that would have needed to be made. That's the point of making it, to make people pay attention and say, 'Guys, we have to start somewhere.'
"And it's not just the city of Chicago. It's everywhere. It's a bad time right now, no matter where we look. Kids can't go to school, people can't go to church, you can't go to the movies. It's like, what are we doing to ourselves? What's happening? We're acting like animals."
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