When news broke that a Whitney Houston biopic was in the works, many folks had the same question: Why?
“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” arrived in theaters Friday. It is preceded by countless TV movies, reality series, documentaries, books and other projects that delve into Houston’s life, loves and career.
Kasi Lemmons has seen the immense interest in Houston since the singer’s 2012 death, and she gets it. Lemmons directs the new film that stars Naomi Ackie.
“She was with us for a short time, and you know, we’re pulled to those stories,” Lemmons says of Houston. “We want to understand more.”
She says Houston’s story is tragic yet triumphant.
“She had her demons. It reminds us of being human. It reminds us some people we greatly admire have weaknesses. And there was something relatable about her.”
Houston’s music still has legions of fans, another reason for making the movie, Lemmons says. The Grammy-winning singer’s discography is full of blockbusters.
Her self-titled 1985 debut album included “You Give Good Love,” “Saving All My Love for You” and “How Will I Know.” “Whitney” followed in 1987, then “I’m Your Baby Tonight” in 1990 and of course the soundtrack for “The Bodyguard” in 1992. Houston’s final album was “I Look to You” in 2009, though she contributed songs to the 2012 “Sparkle” soundtrack.
The vocal performances in “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” with one exception, are Houston’s actual performances.
Lemmons says the movie “allows you to experience her music as if you were right in the expensive seats at a concert, yet get inside of her interior life.”
Her own favorite Houston songs are “I Have Nothing” along with her versions of “Greatest Love of All,” “I Will Always Love You” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“We can’t get enough of her music,” Lemmons says.
Adding authenticity
In “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” Houston’s story is presented in a straightforward, linear fashion, hitting the highs and lows — from growing up in New Jersey with her parents, John and Cissy Houston (Clarke Peters and Tamara Tunie), to her accidental drowning on the weekend of the Grammys.
Anthony McCarten (“Bohemian Rhapsody”) wrote the screenplay.
We see Houston falling in love with Robyn Crawford (Nafessa Williams), singing for record label president Clive Davis (Stanley Tucci), being groomed as America’s sweetheart, filming the colorful video for “How Will I Know,” skyrocketing to the top of the music industry, meeting husband Bobby Brown (Ashton Sanders) and performing at the Super Bowl.
We also see her struggles with drugs, her fights with Brown, a miscarriage during filming of “The Bodyguard” and a devastating fallout with her father.
It’s all been covered before, and Lemmons took in much of the earlier work, notably the documentaries and books. She steered clear of the more salacious content about Houston’s life.
This movie, she says, “offers a story about her life that has authenticity, that’s not salacious, that’s very respectful.” That’s what sets it apart from other projects.
“It’s a celebration of Whitney, for sure,” Lemmons says. “It’s a celebration that doesn’t shy away from some of the more difficult things in her life. You get to explore her relationships, and you get to be with her again as this regal presence the way we remember her. I think it’s entertaining and joyful and tragic and emotional, and it reminds us there was this great, incredibly gifted goddess that walked amongst us who was also a human being.”
Clive Davis and Pat Houston, the singer’s sister-in-law and manager, serve as producers of the movie, lending a layer of legitimacy. They were also able to add valuable, necessary insight along the way.
“It was the first time I worked with people who had a lot of emotion about something that was very recent in their lives,” Lemmons says. But it also was challenging at times.
“It’s emotional — ‘I know I’ve triggered you, but I’m making a movie, and I know there’s emotions involved and I want to respect you and your relationships with Whitney,’” Lemmons says. “Navigating this was tricky, honestly. But I came to appreciate that I was dealing with people who had a wealth of information about my subject and had personal feelings that were deep and a perspective I did not want to ignore.”
Their participation was also useful in dealing with sensitive topics such as Houston’s relationship with Crawford and the root of her addiction issues.
“Bobby Brown has gotten a lot of bad media, like, he turned her on to drugs, and that just wasn’t true,” Lemmons says. “Drugs were always a part of her life from a young age. It existed in her family. … It was her way of coping on so many levels. She says it in a scene with Clive. It’s her vacation — how she lets her hair down.”
Depicting the love between Houston and Crawford was important. Lemmons recalls meeting Houston long ago, while Crawford was upstairs in the hotel.
“Their physical relationship was over, but Robyn was still working as her creative director,” Lemmons says. “I remember they were always together. They were very close, and I wanted to look at the evolution of that relationship. I was very heartened that the family and estate were willing to go there and acknowledge this was a significant relationship to Whitney. If we’re going to tell the Whitney Houston story, let’s not shy away from Robyn. I thought that was brave of them.
“I think I definitely sometimes pushed them past their comfort zone,” she says with a laugh.
She also benefited greatly from conversations with Rickey Minor, Houston’s musical director.
“We were able to talk to him and rewrite a scene based on what Rickey said their dialogue was, and Clive and what their dialogue was. And it was the same with Pat. That’s really valuable. All of those pools of information were important.”
Drawn to Houston
In addition to celebrating her music, Lemmons says, “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” is all about the singer’s “interconnected love stories” — with her mother, her father, Brown, Crawford, Davis and, of course, her fans.
Lemmons joined the film in early August 2021.
“I came frighteningly late to a project with so many elements to it,” she says. “There was a lot of work to do. Naomi had been cast, but the rest had not been cast. So I was able to put together this fantastic cast and really steer it forward and be there for Naomi and work on all of these relationships.”
One of the first things she asked for was to see Ackie’s screen test. Ackie is known for roles in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Master of None” and “Small Axe.”
“I watched her screen test and said: ‘OK, she’s interesting. She’s got something. I can see it,’” Lemmons says. “When I met Naomi, I just fell in love with her, her commitment, and the amount of work she’d already put into creating the character. She was still in the process of the physical transformation and vocal transformation. Working with her was one of the greatest experiences of my career, quite honestly.”
Lemmons, who acted in “The Silence of the Lambs” and the original “Candyman,” says working with Ackie “was a perfect actor-director relationship. I love working that closely with an actor, where you’re there every day for each other, and you need each other and everything is hanging on this relationship.”
“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” is Lemmons’ third consecutive directorial project centered on an iconic Black woman, following “Harriet” (2019) and “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” (2020). Lemmons made her directorial debut in 1997 with “Eve’s Bayou.”
“I was in love with all of those figures from first knowing about them,” says Lemmons, who wears a Harriet Tubman charm on a necklace.
She recently added a Houston charm.
“Harriet was all of my life,” she says. “The second I knew about Madam C.J. Walker (whose own story includes a St. Loius chapter), I said, ‘This is a compelling figure, and it would be great to make a movie about her.’ Making a show (miniseries) about her was incredible. Whitney was different. I knew Whitney. I worked with Whitney. I wrote two scripts for Whitney. I was in the room with her and her father. I saw that dynamic.
“So I was drawn to her on a personal level as well as a fan.”
Lemmons says she thinks Houston would be pleased with the film.
“I think she would say, ‘You told the story,’” she says. “I think she would say, ‘I can see myself here.’ I think she would be happy her relationship with Robyn was told, and her relationship with Clive was told, and her relationship with her audience was told.
“And I know she would be glad I am telling the story.”
ALWAYS LOVING WHITNEY
Whitney Houston continues to inspire music, TV, film and book projects, even a decade after her death. Here’s a selected list of releases since 2012.
