Angela Bassett Defends Herself For Making Lifetime’s Whitney Houston Biopic

Since Lifetime announced the production of a Whitney Houston biopic, there’s been a ton of talk about Angela Bassett’s involvement. As the Inquisitr reported, Bassett is the director of the production. Not only is this her first job as a director, but her position in production is significant because she was Whitney’s co-star in the film Waiting To Exhale.

Most of Houston’s fans were in disbelief while others cheered Bassett on in her journey to tell Whitney’s story. Some believe that Bassett will tell a more truthful story about Whitney’s life and legacy. While Bassett was all for the controversy surrounding the production, when Huffington Post interviewed her recently, she was open to defending herself as a friend and an artist.

Of her role in the recently wrapped biopic, Bassett detailed her relationship with Whitney.

“We worked together. We had a wonderful time working together. She was amazing to be around. She broke through this glass ceiling of what a sister was paid, what a woman was paid for starring in a movie. We had a mutual admiration for each other.”

When the movie was announced, Whitney’s family was adamantly against the making of it, especially her mother, Cissy Houston.

Upon hearing about the unauthorized biopic, Whitney’s mother made a statement to Entertainment Tonight.

“Lifetime has chosen to go ahead with the movie about Whitney in spite of my family’s objections. No one connected with this movie knew Whitney or anything about her relationship with Bobby. In the two years since Whitney’s death, many people have stepped forward to speak about their close relationship with her. I find it difficult to believe people who knew and supposedly loved her would participate in a movie about her done by folks who didn’t know her.”

It’s believed that the production centers around Whitney Houston’s relationship with Bobby Brown and how he introduced her to drugs, which would ultimately take her life. Of the controversy, Bassett seemed to be comfortable with it.

“I can understand. I consider it a gift that was given to me to tell this story, and to tell it with love, compassion and dignity. Like everyone, I adored her, and at its core it’s a love story. I know about being a woman, being a black woman, that came up in a little home town, yet you are able to become a success because of this God given talent. I know a little bit about what it might have been like.”

“Each of us have something that can over take us, so you have to put boundaries. No one’s perfect. If you don’t work on some issue that we all have — you can’t allow exposure of everything in the world. Seeing, hearing, and doing whatever will affect you. Unfortunately drugs is[sic] one of those things. You think you can dabble and play with it until it gets a hold.”

Back in August Bassett said controversy in general can “pique your interest.”

So far there’s no air date for Whitney Houston’s biopic. We don’t know whether Bassett is cutting the film after her workload with American Horror Story or if she will fully commit to the project’s post-production afterward.

[Image via Twentieth Century Fox]