Dreamgirls (2006): 15 Shocking Facts You Totally Missed

Dreamgirls (2006): 15 weird facts you didn't know Bill Condon and his casting team screen tested 783 singing actresses before landing on Jennifer Hudson. Fantasia Barrino, fresh off her American Idol win, was the early favorite. Raven-Symoné auditioned. Even Yvette Nicole Brown was in the mix. Two years earlier, Hudson had actually placed seventh on the same Idol season Fantasia won, and the two ended up competing for the exact same role. Jamie Foxx said no to Curtis Taylor over money. Denzel Washington said no because he doesn't sing. The role passed through Will Smith and Terrence Howard before Foxx circled back. Beyoncé physically transformed herself between the two age ranges of Deena, doing the Master Cleanse and dropping 20 pounds in two weeks. She later said publicly she'd never recommend it to anyone. Condon made Jennifer Hudson deliberately be rude to people on set for a week before filming, so she'd stop acting like Effie and just live inside her personality. "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" took four full days to shoot because Hudson's voice kept giving out. Whitney Houston killed the first attempt at this movie in the late 80s over one song. A 90s version with Lauryn Hill and Kelly Price also collapsed. Eddie Murphy was mathematically locked to win the Oscar until Norbit opened two weeks before the ceremony and destroyed his campaign. He left the Kodak Theatre early that night, and for 18 years everyone assumed he stormed out in anger. Only in 2026 did he finally explain the real reason. Diana Ross publicly stated she never watched the film and had no plans to. And the closing credits carry a dedication to Michael Bennett, the original Broadway director who died in 1987 without ever getting to make his own film version. And the bonus: Effie is fiction, but the woman she's based on was real. Florence Ballard founded the Supremes, got pushed aside for Diana Ross, and was fired mid-residency in Vegas in 1967, just like Effie. Except Ballard never got a triumphant reunion. She died broke of cardiac arrest at just 32 years old in 1976. ⏱ Timestamps in the chapters below 👇 Which fact surprised you most? Drop it in the comments