Naomi Ackie starred in the film 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody' about the life and career of Whitney Houston.
Naomi Ackie reveals how she transformed into Whitney Houston.
In a new behind-the-scenes video shared exclusively with People, Naomi Ackie sheds light on the painstaking ways she perfected the late singer's moves and style, as well as her voice, for the film Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody'.
“There were a lot of different elements: How do I prepare vocally, in the song? The accent work took about six months to really get comfortable with it,” said the 31-year-old British actress.
“And how do I prepare physically? In terms of movement, I worked with my amazing friend and movement coach, Polly Bennett, and we kind of split it all up,” added Naomi Ackie.
Polly Bennett was also a movement coach on the recent film 'Elvis' starring Oscar nominee Austin Butler and the 2018 film 'Bohemian Rhapsody' where star Rami Malek won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in role of Queen's Freddie Mercury.
"Everyone has a certain rhythm. Everyone has an internal rhythm. And if you study it and practice it enough, the hope is that it will come really naturally," added Naomi Ackie.
"I Wanna Dance With Somebody" was directed by Kasi Lemmons and the film, which hit theaters in late December, features the songs and voice of Whitney Houston.
Naomi Ackie recently told People that she hopes Whitney Houston, who died in February 2012 at age 48, liked the film and noted that she would, of course, be open to any comments from the singer.
"I'd like to hope he was like, 'Okay, Nai, you did it!'" he said with a laugh, adding: "Also, he might have had a bunch of notes and I'd be like, 'Great - let's do another take. Give me directions and we can do it again''
Naomi Ackie, who has starred in the film "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019), emphasized that her priority with the film was to portray Whitney Houston as a person and respectfully capture her battles with fame and the addiction.
"The thing about Whitney and people who suffer from addiction is that it's a reminder that it's a disease, that the person going through it is the victim. Her life was great, but the things she was going through were things we all go through," he explained.
"It's really important to bring her into a very human environment and treat Whitney with the same compassion that we would treat anyone else, because I think when it comes to the idea of celebrities and idols, sometimes we can be more rude because the expectations of them are very high," he said.
