Whitney Houston Defends Her Blackness In ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ Trailer
Whitney Houston’s official biopic lands in theaters on Dec. 21, but ahead of its highly-anticipated theatrical release, Sony Pictures has unveiled a new trailer.
In the new preview of I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Houston (played by Naomi Ackie) is seen responding to critics who considered her music to not be Black enough.
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“Who said that? That’s just bull. And it makes me angry actually because it’s hateful and uninformed. My whole life: ‘She ain’t Black enough, she ain’t white enough.’ Well how ’bout ‘She’s not obedient enough?’ How ’bout ‘She ain’t fearful enough?’,” she expressed to a radio host.
Later in the teaser, the film illustrates the Waiting To Exhale star‘s relationship with her father, John (played by Clarke Peters). At first, their relationship is portrayed as amicable and loving. “Whitney, you’re Daddy’s princess. We’re building something here, so you just keep singing,” he urges.
However, when he sees Houston as more of a business acquisition than his child, the two become more estranged. At one point in the trailer, she exclaims, “Daddy … my money. I trusted you. You were meant to look out for me.”
As her diamond-certified single, “I Will Always Love You” plays in background, the trailer also shows other infamous glimpses into the late singer’s life, including her relationship with Bobby Brown and Robyn Crawford, her legendary 1991 performance of the national anthem at the Super Bowl, and more.
The Kasi Lemmons-directed film was described as a “no-holds-barred portrait of the complex and multifaceted woman behind The Voice,” which aims to explore “the Whitney you never knew.”
Clive Davis, who served as an executive producer on the film, recently told Billboard, “I think it shows real depth and understanding of who she was, as well as the magnitude of what her musical life represented.”
Watch the new trailer above.
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