The cast for the Whitney Houston biopic continues to take shape. According to a recent announcement, Moses Ingram has been announced as playing Robyn Crawford in the upcoming film, which the Houston estate supports.
As theGrio previously reported, Whitney Houston fans eagerly await the official biopic’s arrival based on the singing legend entitled, I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Produced by Clive Davis and with a script written by Oscar nominee Anthony McCarten, the film has reportedly been approved by the Houston estate, unlike the 2014 Lifetime TV film Whitney.
Expected to be released in Thanksgiving 2022, the casting announcements for the film continue to pour in, including the addition of The Queen’s Gambit‘s Moses Ingram playing Robyn Crawford.
This isn’t the first exciting casting announcement for Ingram to come out since her television debut in The Queens Gambit. The actress is currently in production with the highly anticipated Disney+ series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which sees the return of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen in their Star Wars roles.
She also is appearing as Lady Macduff in the upcoming The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Corey Hawkins, and more.
As theGrio previously reported, Naomi Ackie is set to star as “the voice” herself in the upcoming film. Per Deadline, director Stella Meghie released an official statement in regards to the casting of Ackie in the iconic role.
Meghie shared at the time, “We spent the better part of the last year in an exhaustive search for an actress who could embody Whitney Houston. Naomi Ackie impressed us at every stage of the process. I was moved by her ability to capture the stage presence of a global icon while bringing humanity to her interior life.”
Ackie, like Ingram, is also a part of the expansive Star Wars universe, having starred in 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Crawford was Houston’s longtime assistant, who eventually became her creative director, best friend, and according to her recent memoir, even had a romantic relationship with the singer.
As theGrio reported in 2019, Crawford revealed that shortly after meeting Houston, the two began a romantic relationship. She shares in the memoir, “We wanted to be together,” but that her burgeoning career is what kept them apart in that capacity.
She writes, “She said we shouldn’t be physical anymore because it would make our journey even more difficult…She said if people find out about us, they would use this against us and back in the ’80s that’s how it felt.”
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