\u201cThere was a little bit of reluctance, you know,\u201d she said about first auditioning for the part. \u201cI had to be really talked into doing this or to audition.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it was definitely like, \u2018I don\u2019t look like Whitney, I don\u2019t sound like Whitney, I\u2019m not a singer.\u2019 I remember I gave them a list when I had the meeting with the producers, I gave them a list of reasons why I shouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI was like, \u2018I know my agent is going to kill me but here is a list of why this should not work.\u2019 So there was a lot of fear, but at the same time the part of me that can\u2019t help but throw her hat into the ring, I couldn\u2019t help it. I was just like, \u2018Well who knows? And you know, if they are hiring me, I need to trust that it\u2019s for a reason.’\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/Stanely-Tucci-as-Clive-Davis-and-Naomi-Ackie-as-Whitney-Houston-ce49045.jpg?quality=90&resize=619%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>In the end, Ackie proved she was very much the right fit for the role with an outstanding performance in the film \u2013 and she explained that there were a huge amount of resources available to her that helped shape her performance.<\/p>\n
This included the wealth of footage that was shot of Houston during her lifetime, but also more crucially the books written about her by those who knew her best.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe books were the most useful because it was seeing Whitney through the eyes of people who were the closest to her,\u201d Ackie said. \u201cAnd then talking to people was also very useful for the same reason. The YouTube videos and stuff was amazing, but it was public-facing Whitney. And that was kind of not what most of this film is, it\u2019s trying to figure out what her private world is.\u201d<\/p>\n
She continued: \u201cThe kind of heart of Whitney was found in the reading of the books, especially the ones written by Cissy Houston and Robyn Crawford \u2013 two kind of different points of view from two people that were very close to her. And then talking to her family and talking to Clive [Davis] and anyone else who worked with her \u2013 luckily, there were a lot of people working on our set who had worked also with Whitney.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is released in cinemas on Friday 23rd December 2022. <\/strong>Check out more of our\u00a0<\/strong>Film<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0<\/strong>TV Guide<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Christmas double issue of Radio Times magazine is on sale now<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the\u00a0<\/strong>Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div> <\/body><\/html>\n By Patrick Cremona Published: Wednesday, 21 December 2022 at 12:00 am You might think that playing a musical icon such as Whitney Houston would be the role of a lifetime for any performer \u2013 but I Wanna Dance with Somebody, star Naomi Ackie has revealed she was initially hesitant to play the singer in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":27546,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/whitney-houston-star-naomi-ackie-explains-initial-reluctance-to-play-her-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Patrick Cremona Published: Wednesday, 21 December 2022 at 12:00 am You might think that playing a musical icon such as Whitney Houston would be the role of a lifetime for any performer \u2013 but I Wanna Dance with Somebody, star Naomi Ackie has revealed she was initially hesitant to play the singer in the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/27545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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