Naomi Ackieis giving an inside look into how she becameWhitney Houston.
In a new behind-the-scenes featurette shared exclusively with PEOPLE, Ackie sheds light on the painstaking ways she mastered the movements and mannerisms of the late singer, as well as her voice, for the filmWhitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody.
“There was many different elements: How do I prepare myself vocally, singing-wise? The accent work took about six months to get really comfortable with it,” the British actress, 31, explains. “And how do I prepare myself physically? In terms of movement, I worked with my amazing friend and my movement coach, Polly Bennett, and we kind of split it all up.”
Bennett also served as a movement coach on the recentElvisfilm with Oscar nomineeAustin Butlerand 2018’sBohemian Rhapsody, which saw starRami Malekwin an Oscar for playing Queen singer Freddie Mercury.
“Everyone has certain cadences. Everyone has a sort of inner rhythm. And if you study it and practice it enough,” Ackie explains, “the hope is that it comes out really naturally.”
Naomi Ackie inWhitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.Emily Aragones
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“I would hope she would be like, ‘Okay, Nai, you did a thing!’ " said Ackie with a laugh. “Also, she might have loads of notes and I’d just be like, ‘Great — let’s do another one. Direct me and we can do it again.’ "
The actress, known for roles in 2019’sStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalkerand Netflix’sThe End of the F***ing World, said her priority with the project was to portray Houston as a human being and capture her struggles with fame and addiction in a respectful way. (Houstondiedin 2012 of a drug-related accidental drowning when she was 48.)
Dave J Hogan/Getty
“The thing about Whitney and people who are suffering from addiction is it’s a reminder that it’s an illness, that the person who is going through this is the victim of it,” said Ackie. “Her life was extraordinary, but the things she was going through were things we all go through.”
“Bringing her into a very human space and treating Whitney with the same compassion we would treat anyone else is really important,” she continued, “because I think when it comes to the idea of celebrities and icons, sometimes we can be more unkind because our expectations of them are so high.”
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebodyis on digital nowand on Blu-ray and DVD Feb. 28.
source: people.com
