Yaya Decosta is still pegged to play Whitney Houston in Lifetime’s Whitney Houston biopic and the musical story finally has a premiere date. Next year, fans and critics can check out their take on Whitney’s life on January 17, 2015.
Directed by Angela Bassett, who co-starred with Whitney back in 1995 on Waiting to Exhale, Whitney will focuses a lot on Houston’s tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown. Lifetime said the film highlights “the overwhelming rewards and consequences of the fame and fortune created by Houston’s meteoric rise that would soon overshadow them both.” Although it has yet to air, the film has already received personal feedback and hard criticism from Houston’s family, similar to that of Aaliyah’s.
Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother expressed her distaste in the Whitney Houston biopic, “Please let her rest. I find it difficult to believe people who knew and supposedly loved her would participate in a movie about her done by folks who didn’t know her. We are exhausted by the continuing misinformation and comments offered by people who did not know her.”
Bassett also spoke on the backlash she’s received by directing the late singer’s story. “I did spend a little time [with] her, but to know her intimately, intimately — I mean, who does but the person and the Lord they serve? But I know a little about being in the spotlight, a little about celebrity and its demands, a little about trying to find a mate and the support that’s needed in your industry,” she told the Huffington Post. “I know about being a woman, about being a black woman that came up in a little hometown … and yet you are able to become a success because of this God-given gift or talent. So I know a little bit about what it might have been like.”
Vixens, are you checking out the icon’s biopic next month? If you’re still on the fence, check out Lifetime’s newly released photos from Whitney and see if they change your mind.
