"Aretha: Respect" is the first episode in the third season of Genius. It is the twenty-first episode overall.
Plot Summary[]
Aretha Franklin travels to Muscle Shoals with husband Ted White in 1967 to record her first album with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records; after losing her surrogate mother, Little Re braves her first solo in 1953 in her father's church.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin
- Malcolm Barrett as Ted White
- Patrice Covington as Erma Franklin
- Rebecca Naomi Jones as Carolyn Franklin
- David Cross as Jerry Wexler
- Kimberly Hébert Gregory as Ruth Bowen
- Shaian Jordan as Little Re (young Aretha)
- Courtney B. Vance as C. L. Franklin
Guest Starring[]
- Marque Richardson as King Curtis
- Pauletta Washington as Rachel Franklin
- Keith Arthur Bolden as Recording Studio Man
- Robert Glasper as Art Tatum
- Steven G. Norfleet as Cecil Franklin
- Stacey Sargeant as Dinah Washington
- Amanda Warren as Melba Parks