6 Musicians Who Gave Unexpectedly Great Movie Performances

2. Jennifer Hudson As Effie White In 'Dreamgirls' It is pretty obvious to many that an Oscar winning performance would make it into this list, but this is a doozy anyway. In a film that charts the Motown successes of Berry Gordy Jr and the compromises that his artists had to make in order to suit his vision, nobody seems to encapsulate it more than Hudson's character of Effie White. Based on Florence Ballard and Aretha Franklin, Hudson's Effie White has a tragic story arc that seems to represent everything that is almost unspoken about the Motown world. While there is no doubt that there was some who made their fortune from the brilliant entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy Jr., others were simply seen as too niche and not appealing to the taste of the much more lucrative white market. Hudson does brilliantly to convey White's tragic story from the heights of leading the Dreamettes, to being shunted aside to backup singer when she is deemed not right for the part of lead, to her difficulties of trying to make ends meet as a welfare mother who is still determined to show her voice to the world and prove her former employer wrong. It makes for compelling viewing and is a performance that overshone many others' in the film ( especially Beyonce Knowles ).