How will you know if you’ll really love this movie?
Say it softly, it’s almost like praying.
Not a day goes by that I don’t miss Whitney.
Whitney Houston in the 1992 film ‘The Bodyguard’.Everett Collection
So when a biopic was announced around The Voice, I had three questions: 1.
- Who’s playing her?
And she had only died 10 years ago.
Naomi Ackie transforms into Whitney Houston in the upcoming biopic ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody.'.Sony; George Rose/Getty Images
In the case of Whitney, isn’t it still too soon?
On the other hand, it could be a complete disaster.
Like “never show your face in this town again” disaster.
Stanley Tucci as Clive Davis and Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston in ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’.Emily Aragones/TRISTAR pictures
To take on someone who looms so large in the cultural firmament is no enviable task.
“I mean, I literally couldn’t because it’s Whitney’s voice, obviously.
But the way Naomi did it, you’d swear to God, she was singing it.
Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston in ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’.Emily Aragones/Sony
It was very, very moving.”
“It feels like she’s just a part of the fabric of being a person in the world.
That, to me, it filled me with fear to try and attempt that.”
Naomi Ackie as Whitney Houston in ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody’.Emily Aragones/TRISTAR pictures
Back then, the film was still an idea, not yet released onto the world.
There is simply too much life to fit into two and a half hours.
But the script by two-time Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten paints an already broad life with even broader strokes.
McCarten was nominated for penning the screenplays forThe Two Popesand the Stephen Hawking biopicThe Theory of Everything.
“That moved me tremendously.
Thankfully, her death isn’t dramatized.
Just writing those song titles makes my vocal chords hurt.
In that performance, Whitney Houston became part of American history.
At the time, she wasthesymbol of America.
It may not be the real thing, but for a half-second, you might forget.
