Kasi Lemmons on how directing I Wanna Dance With Somebody changed her relationship to Whitney Houston

Director Kasi Lemmons (Eve's Bayou, Harriet) was not only a fan of Whitney Houston, like so many others, but she actually got to know the woman behind the Voice. When it came time to helm the new musical biopic on the singer, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, Lemmons was able to bring that intimate knowledge along for the production.

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"I had a personal relationship with [Whitney], because I wrote two scripts for her," Lemmons tells EW in the video above. "So I got to meet her, and I got to see her as the woman who was behind the icon. That moved me tremendously. I met her father at the same time, so I got to know John Houston and that dynamic, and how she was very different than the image, and how he was very protective of the image. I knew all that going into the movie, and I tried to bring all that into the film."

Through making the film, Lemmons learned more about her relationships with Clive Davis and her mother Cissy Houston. In particular, Lemmons found it revelatory how Davis and Houston "created the music, and just Whitney's artistry, and how she could interpret ... how she could recognize a song, whether it would be a 'Whitney song,' and what she could do with the music."

Her takeaway from I Wanna Dance With Somebody? Lemmons says it's Houston's "love for the audience, and needing that love, and the love that she gave the audience."

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody is now in theaters.

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• I Wanna Dance With Somebody's Naomi Ackie on the Whitney Houston wigs she stole from the set

• Naomi Ackie recreates Whitney Houston's biggest moments in I Wanna Dance With Somebody trailer

• Becoming Whitney Houston in I Wanna Dance With Somebody