Honey, let Hudson tell you about 'Secret Life of Bees'

Movies

After playing Carrie Bradshaw's loyal assistant in Sex and the City: The Movie, Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson next buzzes into theaters in The Secret Life of Bees. In the film, based on Sue Monk Kidd's beloved novel, Hudson is the friend and caretaker of Dakota Fanning, who flees her love-barren home to live with a trio of beekeeping sisters (Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Alicia Keys).

"It's very raw, very raw. It affected each of us in some kind of way," says Hudson. "Like with me, I had to do research like crazy on the civil rights movement. That messed with my mind. And then I had to fight three white men because I was my own stunt double."

Hudson and her co-stars had to dig deep to get into character. "Dakota, Queen and Tristan (Wilds) had to go to bee school and learn how ...