Jennifer Hudson felt "trapped between two worlds" when she left ‘American Idol’.
The ‘Spotlight’ hitmaker was booted out of the third season of ‘American Idol’, coming in seventh place, and found it tough to deal with the expectation from "everyone in her regular life" that she was suddenly a big celebrity now.
She said: "The show held all the tools to your career, from PR to management to the platform that allows you to sing, which isn’t a record label but television. That’s the disadvantage of doing a talent show.
"When you come off a show like ‘American Idol’ you are trapped between two worlds. You are just a toe on the music industry, you are barely there, but to everyone in your regular life you are now a celebrity and they expect big things … [People would say], ‘I know you! You were on TV. What you doin’ here? Go be a star!’"
And as a judge on ‘The Voice UK’, Jennifer feels "a lot of responsibility" towards her acts to help them not get "overwhelmed" by the whole thing.
She added to The Times newspaper: "I feel a lot of responsibility. Sometimes you can hear when people aren’t ready, sometimes you can hear when people aren’t ready, sometimes you can hear the excitement and hopefulness in their voice, and when you have your team assembled you think, ‘Who needs the most support, who is the most inexperienced?’
"I get overwhelmed by it all because I remember all the things that went through my head on ‘American Idol’. They think it will all happen for them and that may not be the outcome, so you have to prepare for however the cookie crumbles. It ain’t always ‘lights, camera, action.’"
Jennifer Hudson felt ‘trapped’ after leaving American Idol
