Jennifer Hudson payed tribute to Whitney Houston a day after her death at the Grammys. She is also reportedly being considered to play the star onscreen. (ROBYN BECK/Getty Images)
According to reports, Rihanna is also on the shortlist for the role. (Bauergriffinonline.com)
Rihanna, Jennifer Hudson, Jordin Sparks, Brandy and Vivica Fox are all being considered to play Whitney Houston in a biopic helmed by record label executive Clive Davis, reports say.
According to the Daily Mail, while the timing of such a project might seem ill-conceived, the biopic has actually been in the works for a long time. The newspaper reports that Davis — a close friend of Houston’s who eulogized the singer at her funeral — is looking to finalize a script soon.
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“Whitney knew about the project and was excited to see where it would lead,” a source told People UK. “It’s hoped the biopic will be as successful as Tina Turner movie ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It,’ which landed two Oscar nominations for Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne who played Tina and Ike Turner.”
If the biopic moves forward, Hudson seems like the most obvious choice to play Houston, having proven her acting skills with an Oscar-winning debut performance in “Dreamgirls.” Furthermore, Hudson was the person Houston’s family asked to pay tribute to Houston at the Grammy Awards, just a night after her death, with a moving rendition of “I Will Always Love You.”
However, Brandy — who starred in a 1997 version of “Cinderella” — is the singer who might push the hardest for the role. Just weeks before Houston’s death, the singer, whose full name is Brandy Norwood, said that she would love to play Houston onscreen.
“My dream role would be to play Whitney Houston,” Brandy told the website TrueExclusives. “Of course she would have to sing all the songs. But I would love to play Ms. Whitney. I have her personality down pat, her ‘isms’ down pat. Like no offense ladies — it’s a lot of talented ladies there — but nobody can play Whitney like me.”
Brandy’s brother, Ray J, was reported to be Houston’s on-again-off-again boyfriend at the time of her death.
Sparks of “American Idol” also has a claim to the role. Sparks stars opposite Houston in “Sparkle,” Houston’s final film, which will be in theaters on Aug. 17. In the movie, a remake of a 1976 film, Sparks plays one of Houston’s three daughters who form a vocal group.
Rihanna, though reported to be a favorite for the role, may not even be open to taking it. The “We Found Love” singer shot down rumors last year that she was signing on for a remake of Houston’s classic with Kevin Costner, “The Bodyguard.”
“Absolutely not,” Rihanna told OK! magazine. “I hate it when singers do singing movies all the time, because you can never look at them as anybody else. I want to play a character. My whole life is playing Rihanna, [so] being a singer [in a film] won’t be a stretch for me. I like challenges, and being an actor is playing a role, being able to step into somebody else’s shoes, that’s the excitement.”
While several names are reportedly being floated for the role of adult Houston, the Daily Mail names only one who is being considered to play a young Houston in the film — Willow Smith, daughter of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, who had a hit with “Whip My Hair” in 2010.