Lee Daniels Star lead actress, Jude Demorest musical training all came from church, and not just any church, but Pastor Marvin Winans Perfecting Church in Detroit Michigan.
“I grew up in church, seven days a week,” she told Vanity Fair. “The service was very music-driven, so the pastor created a performing-arts school down the street. There was drama, dance, and choir rehearsal—it was my training.”
According to WJBK in Detroit, Demorest was known as Claire Demorest at Winans Academy of Performing Arts. “She just always had so much personality and she just wanted the stage,” Pastor Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church told the station.
Winans told WJBK that Demorest studied at the academy between the ages of 10 and 15. When she turned 16, she moved to California.
