Angela Bassett has had to defend her upcoming Whitney Houston biopic once again.
The Lifetime movie, starring Yaya DaCosta, was criticized by Whitney’s mother Cissy for going ahead without the family’s permission or blessing.
Cissy said that she objected to the project saying: “No-one connected with this movie knew Whitney or anything about her relationship with Bobby.”
Bassett, who starred alongside Whitney in the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale, told HuffPost Live that she is qualified to work on the biopic.
“I did spend a little time [with] her, but to know her intimately, intimately – I mean, who does but the person and the Lord they serve? Who knows a person?” she asked.
“But I know a little about being in the spotlight, a little about celebrity and its demands, a little about trying to find a mate and the support that’s needed in your industry – mine being acting, hers [the] music industry.
“I know about being a woman, about being a black woman that came up in a little hometown… and yet you are able to become a success because of this God-given gift or talent. So I know a little bit about what it might have been like.”
The Whitney biopic will be Bassett’s directorial debut.
The biopic is set to air on Lifetime in 2015.