Naomi Ackie recreates Whitney Houston's biggest moments in I Wanna Dance With Somebody trailer
"I might've just heard the greatest voice of her generation." The voice, of course, belongs to Whitney Houston.
That's a line you'll hear as Naomi Ackie, who appeared in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, transforms into the iconic singer in the first trailer for I Wanna Dance With Somebody, an upcoming biopic named after one of the pop diva's most famous hits.
The footage shows Ackie recreating some of Houston's biggest moments in her career, including her definitive 1991 rendition of the National Anthem for Super Bowl XXV, the making of her "How Will I Know" music video, and her famous response to criticism that her music wasn't "Black enough."
"I don't know how to sing Black and I don't know how to sing white either," says Ackie, mimicking Houston's voice. "I know how to sing."
Ackie, known for her smaller roles in The End of the F***ing World season 2 and the indie film Lady Macbeth (with Florence Pugh), recently told PEOPLE that she was "very" nervous to take on the part of Houston.
"She's been elevated in my life for so long that it felt like an impossible thing to achieve at times," she said. "But so many people told me the same thing: If I wasn't scared and nervous, they'd think something was wrong with me… The biggest challenge was letting my fear of the magnitude of this task take a back seat. Nothing good comes from sitting in fear for too long."
Sony; George Rose/Getty Images Naomi Ackie transforms into Whitney Houston in the upcoming biopic 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody.'
Directed by Kasi Lemmons (Harriet) and written by Oscar-nominated scribe Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything), I Wanna Dance With Somebody will chronicle Houston's rise "from New Jersey choir girl to one of the best-selling and most awarded recording artists of all time," according to a plot description from Sony Pictures. McCarten previously wrote the script for the Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Stanley Tucci portrays famed music producer Clive Davis, who is a producer on the film. As the trailer teases, it will come with "a soundtrack of the icon's most beloved hits as you've never heard them before."
I Wanna Dance With Somebody belts into theaters Dec. 21.
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