By Archie D'Cruz » It could so easily have been a confidence-shattering moment of epic proportions.

Jennifer Hudson had just been voted off the hugely-successful TV talent show American Idol in a major upset, when acerbic judge Simon Cowell was asked if he had any words of advice for the young singer.

As a live TV audience of millions watched, Cowell instead chose to put a figurative boot to Hudson's head while she was down.

"You get one shot (at the big time)," he told her. "You ain't never gonna be seen again."

Hudson with her Oscar

Jennifer Hudson not only picked herself up, she aimed even higher.

And what a journey the two years since the show have been. Providing ample proof that dreams do come true for people willing to work for them, Hudson earned a starring role in one of the most critically acclaimed Hollywood musicals of the year.

Even the movie's title – Dreamgirls – seemed to resonate with what she had achieved.

She turned in a performance that earned rave reviews and a host of awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe last month for Best Supporting Actress.

It is an astonishing Hollywood debut for someone who had never previously considered an acting career.

So how did Hudson turn it all around in the space of two short years? It perhaps helped that the story of Dreamgirls somewhat paralleled her own.

The film adaptation of the Tony award-winning 1981 musical follows the rise and fall of a Supremes-esque girl singing group in the 60's. Despite Beyonce Knowles serving as the Diana Ross counterpart, the play and film is really about Hudson's character Effie White - the 'heavier' singer who looks less glamorous but is the one girl of the group with real talent.

“I’ve had a similar journey as Effie," said Hudson. “Me being a part of ‘Idol,’ her being part of the group. I was kicked off the talent show. She was the lead singer of the group [The Dreamettes] and kicked off to the background. We both go through our journeys, trying to hold on to our dream and achieve our goal. We have hardships but we prevail at the end.”

Hudson agreed with co-star Jamie Foxx who was quoted as saying the Idol experience, where Cowell criticized her so harshly in front of America, prepared her for the success she was now enjoying.

"Definitely. I give that experience credit, and I feel everything prepares you for the next. It helped make Effie and my stories parallel."

Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls

When director Bill Condon finally called her to tell her she had won the role, she could hardly believe it.

"I jumped up and down and shouted 'Thank you, Jesus!' I fell to the ground and had Bill repeat it again and again. 'Just say it again, Bill!'," she recalled.

In a delicious bit of irony, one of the girls she beat out for the role was Fantasia Barrino, winner of American Idol the same season she so famously failed to make it to the final six.

Winning the prize role, however, in many ways turned out to be the easy part. To get into character, she was asked to gain weight – going from a size 10/12 to a 14/16.

"I'm (usually) a very healthy eater," said Hudson. "I only each chicken, fish and turkey, no fried foods. I don't even drink soda.

"But for Effie I had to change it a little bit and eat cookies and cakes and pies at all wee hours of the night. I found the biggest challenge, moreso than gaining or losing weight, was to maintain the weight. Anytime I lost an inch, [wardrobe] was like,

'Nope, you gotta go back up.' It was hard because of all the choreography and the busy schedule."

Despite the movie's success and the awards that have been pouring in. Hudson remains remarkably grounded.

Unlike other stars, and despite the new movie offers that have been flooding in, Hudson has chosen not to move to Los Angeles, opting instead to stay in Chicago where she grew up.

Her father, Samuel Simpson, died some time ago, but her mother Darnell Hudson still lives in Chicago. Hudson’s older brother Jason is a mechanic and older sister Julia is a school bus driver.

Hudson, the baby among five full and half-siblings in a family often described as “low-key,” said she always knew she wanted to sing before audiences. She began doing so in church when she was 7.

“They would never give me a solo or give me a chance, so I remember sitting in the bathroom at home crying, like, ‘If nobody will listen to me sing, I’ll listen to me sing,’” she recalled. When she finally got her first solo, on “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone,” “I forgot the words, and the congregation had to help me out.”

Things got better.

“I was voted most talented in high school,” she said. “I sang in the choir. I have ‘superior’ ratings from city and state school competitions. I sang opera, classical, you know, everything.”

While she was taking classes at Kennedy-King College in Chicago, her music teacher arranged for her to audition for Big River. Rick Boynton, then the Marriott Theatre’s artistic director, was immediately struck by this 19-year-old singer’s “tremendous groundedness.”

“Quite honestly I will never forget Jennifer Hudson coming in and singing for us because she was so unassuming and really understated in terms of personality,” said Boynton, now at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. “She just came into the room and opened her mouth, and it was something I had never heard. It was incredible. She got the part immediately.”

Fields also remembered being immediately struck by Hudson’s singing. “My first impression of her was, ‘Whoa! Those are some pipes!’”

From Big River, Hudson moved to an eight-month contract to perform on a Disney cruise line despite being a self-described “homebody and mama’s baby.”

“From the moment I stepped on that ship, I was like, I will never be at home for good ever again,” she said.

Four days after she got off the ship, she auditioned for “American Idol” in Atlanta.
The rest, as they say, is history.

"Simon Cowell said to me that you only get one shot at the big time," recalled Hudson. "But you know what Simon? I got shot number two,” she says.