Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)
Naomi Ackie stars as bisexual icon Whitney Houston in director Kasi Lemmons’s 2022 biopic WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY.
WHITNEY HOUSTON:
I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY
2022 |USA
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Screenplay: Anthony McCarten
Cast: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Nafessa Williams, Ashton Sanders, Tamara Tunie & Clarke Peters
When the Whitney biopic was first announced I was wondering how much of the late singer’s relationship with her assistant/girlfriend Robyn Crawford would be explored in the film. Hollywood has a long history of watering down queer stories, or completely erasing them, when exploring the lives of celebrities on the silver screen. Surprisingly, with the permission of the Whitney Houston Estate, the film doesn’t shy away from depicting the love that Whitney was pressured to give up for her career.
"It was really important to me too that we tell her full story,” Naomi Ackie, who plays Whitney in the film, stated in a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly. She went on to explain, “If you're going to explore this amazing woman, you've got to do it all. The thing I loved about her relationship with Robyn is that it's just the deepest connection I think that Whitney experienced. That love that they shared, changed and morphed over time as they got older, but the love never changed.”
The film explores Whitney’s bisexuality, and even includes a couple of other queer characters, though the director has stated that she really had to fight to include intimacy between Whitney and Robyn on screen. That may also be why their romantic relationship is only depicted for a short time – but despite that there is a lingering subtext in the film that emphasizes that Whitney was happiest when she was allowed to be herself, and when she was with Robyn.
You can find WHITNEY HOUSTON: I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY streaming on Netflix (Canada/Mexico), Prime & Hulu (USA), for rent or purchase through AppleTV & Amazon, and also available on DVD/Blu-ray.
