Angela Bassett
She worked with the late Whitney Houston filming “Waiting to Exhale.” Now award-winning actress Angela Bassett is making her directorial debut with the Lifetime original movie “Whitney.” She filmed it while starring as a voodoo queen on “American Horror Story: Coven.” The 56-yearold is also reprising her role in the sequel to “Olympus Has Fallen.” Raised by a single mom, she went on to graduate from Yale University School of Drama. “Whitney” premieres on Lifetime at 8 p.m. Saturday. Did you know Whitney Houston? I can only say that I worked with her. I wouldn’t say that I knew her deeply. How much can you really know a person? But we had that moment in time when we worked on “Waiting to Exhale” together. The cast and crew came together maybe about a week or two before we began shooting. We spent time playing cards, going bowling, that sort of thing. Was that helpful in creating the Whitney you present in the movie? Absolutely, absolutely, and I’m grateful that I did have that time. I think it gave me a confidence and a security when I came to the script and saw the story we were attempting to tell. It’s really a small slice of her life, a five-year period [beginning in 1989]. It was the height of her career, the really sweet, sweet spot of her life. It was after “The Bodyguard,” and she was one of the highestpaid — black [or] white, bar none, as well as a music icon — superstars. She was just magnificence and glory, someone we had never seen before, especially in the African-American community. We had such a tremendous amount of love and appreciation, you know, to call her our own. So to be around her at that sweet time helped me a great deal. With that said, did you feel a certain amount of pressure to get the story right? Pressure? You know, I think it depends on the connotation of the word. Maybe not pressure, but I did take it personally, a personal responsibility to get it right. I was passionate and had a lot of compassion for her, for Bobby [Brown], for their relationship and for what they were going through. Not only the African-American community, but the world, we, in a sense, felt that we had a say in her life [laughs]. We felt we had some say — what they can do, should do, whether they belonged together, that sort of thing. I remember when we were working on “Exhale” and meeting Bobby when he came to visit and to have a real first impression as opposed to that perception. That’s interesting because I thought your depiction of Bobby was sympathetic. In 1989 when they met, Bobby was that tender age of 19. To see him at that age, oh, he was just open and charismatic and vulnerable, beautiful and cocky. He was all those wonderful things that are any 19-yearold boy that we’ve met. We know they are adorable and pretty much harmless [laughing], you know, to a grown woman. She was about 24 at the time. I tried to imagine that dynamic. He wasn’t some puppet master. He was in a boy group, and he was trying to shed that persona of the young, pop bubble gum sound and to express himself. He had No. 1 singles. That was a great achievement. But as great as his success was, hers was even more so. Their worlds collided and, you know, they had business. He was the one people blamed for her drug use, but you make it clear in the movie that she was already dabbling. Why would he do that? Why? He adored her. But how does something like that begin? It doesn’t begin the way it ends. It begins quite innocently. You know something that can destroy your life doesn’t show itself. Our own hubris leads us to believe we can control it. I saw an interview with Miss Cissy [Whitney’s mother] and Whitney’s brother speaking with Oprah where he admitted that he introduced his sister to cocaine. So she dabbled in that before she met Bobby. Bobby’s thing wasn’t drugs. His thing was drinking and weed, OK? Did you talk to any of the family or Bobby