Whitney Houston: Keke Palmer Wants to Portray Icon in Film
Fans are waiting for the highly anticipated first authorized biopic on Whitney Houston. It’s the first official film project centered on the late icon that her family and estate are involved with. However, before the movie’s release, Keke Palmer’s name has been trending in conjunction with Houston’s. Apparently, fans of both find that they are strikingly similar. And now, Palmer wants to play Houston in a role.
Keke Palmer wants to portray Whitney Houston
Palmer thinks she can transform into the “I Will Always Love You” singer. She’s currently celebrating the success of her latest film Nope, but the Joyful Noise star is always a viral moment on social media. Recently, a fan posted a clip that went viral of interviews and highlights from Houston’s career stating. In the montage, Houston goofs off in some clips, and in others she lets the media know she’s not one to be bothered.
The fan notes the similarities between Houston and Palmer’s personalities. “KeKe Palmer and Whitney Houston act exactly the same,” she captioned the clip. Several comments poured in agreeing with her observation. And apparently, Palmer thinks so too.
Palmer replied in her own Tweet. “Let’s get the movie made y’all. I’m ready to ACK [sic], we abt to weep in the theaters,” she wrote.
Naomi Ackie is starring as Whitney Houston in the first authorized biopic
While Palmer is putting in her bid to play Houston in a role, her biopic is already in the works. Ackie, a Broadway star, has been tapped to star as the singer. After an exhaustive search to find the perfect leading lady, Ackie was handpicked by producers. One of the producers on the film is music executive and Houston’s longtime mentor Clive Davis.
On selecting Ackie, Davis told USA Today in an interview: “We were very impressed that Whitney’s persona was being captured. The (singing) voice, of course, will be Whitney’s. When it came to Whitney, we just didn’t think anyone could capture her vocal genius, so it will be the Whitney voice in the film.”
Stella Meghie, the film’s director, was also on board with Ackie. “We spent the better part of the last year in an exhaustive search for an actress who could embody Whitney Houston,” she told Deadline. “Naomi Ackie impressed us at every stage of the process. I was moved by her ability to capture the stage presence of a global icon while bringing humanity to her interior life.”
What the biopic will reveal
The film is slated to released Christmas 2022. It also stars Moonlight alum Ashton Sanders as Houston’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown.
According to an official description of the film from Deadline, I Wanna Dance With Somebody is a “joyous, emotional and heart-breaking celebration of the life and music of the greatest female R&B pop vocalist of all time, tracking her journey from obscurity to musical superstardom. While being very frank about the price that super-stardom exacted, it will be both the rich and complex saga of the search for the perfect marriage between song and singer and audience, and at the same time the moving tale of a simple Jersey girl trying to find her way back home.”
