Whitney Houston Biopic Will 'Answer All the Questions' About Late Singer, Clive Davis Says
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Emily Aragones Naomi Ackie in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Clive Davis believes Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody is the definitive Whitney Houston movie.
The famed music executive, now 90, is a producer behind Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, a new movie that features the late singer's vocals and stars British actress Naomi Ackie in the lead.
Davis — who collaborated with Houston on her biggest hits and shared a close friendship with her prior to her sudden death in February 2012 at age 48 — tells PEOPLE the new movie addresses any and all questions fans may have about the icon.
"Knowing all the questions people wanted to know about Whitney, I decided it's only right to do a film and answer all the questions, whether it's about her sexuality, her marriage, her dependence on drugs at a certain part of her career, how she and I worked together," says Davis, who's portrayed by an "uncanny" Stanley Tucci in the movie. "Then — big time — the music. How do you celebrate the music? All those great copyrights. We clearly decided it would have to be Whitney's voice."
"Naomi's audition tape was truly spectacular," he adds. "It was all the research she had put into it. ... Within a few minutes you do feel she's Whitney. She delivers in that manner in the film."
I Wanna Dance With Somebody tracks Houston's life from her time singing in the choir as a teen, getting discovered by Davis, her rise to superstardom and the pressures that accompanied that. Her marriage with Bobby Brown, her drug addiction and her early romance with best friend Robyn Crawford are also included in the movie.
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Charles Sykes/Invision/AP/Shutterstock Stanley Tucci, Naomi Ackie, Clive Davis
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In 2019, seven years after Houston's death, Crawford broke her silence about their love story in a memoir titled Song For You: My Life with Whitney Houston. Actress Nafessa Williams plays Crawford in the movie, which portrays Houston ending their romance by citing religious beliefs amid increased scrutiny on her private life.
Davis, who came out publicly as bisexual in 2013, says he "never knew" about Houston's "teenage affair" with Crawford that's shown onscreen, and he "only saw the heterosexual side of Whitney." However, he points out that he and Houston "probably never discussed" their sexuality, though he "never hid" his partners.
"We didn't have a specific discussion about it, but I think the film is authentic in what it does portray," he says.
The film's director Kasi Lemmons tells PEOPLE the Whitney-Robyn storyline was "very important to me" since she remembers "this was a relationship that, as a young person who was in the acting and dancer scene at the time she came up, we experienced her with Robyn."
Lester Cohen/WireImage Clive Davis and Whitney Houston in 2000
"We knew about Robyn. Everybody knew about it. We talked about it very kind of openly. We weren't in the room with them, so a lot of it was speculation, but at the same time it was a known thing that she and Robyn were very close and they were always together."
Lemmons continues, "In reading everybody's book and watching the documentaries and really taking a deep dive into the research, it was clear that this was an important relationship and that everybody felt that it was important — one that might've rubbed them the wrong way, certain people, but that it was significant.
"It made it very interesting, and I definitely wanted to explore it," the director adds. "And I wouldn't have taken the movie if it didn't include that relationship."
Star Ackie, 31, says there were "so many things I learned" about Houston while researching for the part, including her private and personal personas: "It's like Whitney Houston is public-facing; Nippy is for her family and her friends. We know Whitney Houston, but there's only a select amount of people who know Nippy."
RELATED: See the Cast of I Wanna Dance with Somebody Side-by-Side with the Real People
Sony Pictures
Davis — who launched the careers of countless stars — shared a "wonderful" and unique bond with Houston. He remembers her as "a once-in-a-lifetime vocalist, a music genius that I had the privilege of collaborating with, to enrich my life both personally and professionally."
At the end of the day, Lemmons hopes I Wanna Dance With Somebody captures Houston's humanity amid a spectacular life.
"Whitney as an icon was so important to me and so important to all of us," says Lemmons. "I watched her come up and break, and it was incredible. ... We felt like we knew her. But when I met her, which was years later at the height of her career, I saw somebody who was under a lot of pressure, somebody who perhaps was struggling with some aspects of celebrity and somebody who was tired, actually."
"It's a big window in and you're like, 'Oh, I get it. You're human and this is hard. This isn't easy and you're under a lot of pressure,' " she recalls. "I felt moved by that experience, and I did want to try and capture that as well."
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody is in theaters everywhere Thursday.
PEOPLE's special edition all about the life an unrivaled career of Whitney Houston is available now.
