Yaya DaCosta in Whitney (2015)Jack Zeman
It was only two days of work, but to Deborah Cox, it was everything – she provided Whitney Houston's singing voice for the music and performance scenes in Whitney (Saturday, Lifetime Canada, 9 p.m.).
"I grew up listening to, and being influenced by, Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, but Whitney was my idol. I had to honour her," Cox told me here at a breakfast event to promote Whitney.
The 40-year-old Cox, from Scarborough, Ont., has had a lengthy and eclectic career thanks to her astonishing voice and remarkable range. As a teenager in Toronto she started as a back-up singer for Céline Dion. When a recording career didn't materialize, she moved to L.A. in 1994 and then her career took off like a rocket.
Her song Nobody's Supposed to Be Here was a huge dance hit, followed by others in the same genre. Eventually she got to work with Houston herself, recording the duet Same Script, Different Cast with her. In her 30s, though, Cox's ambition to both act and sing became her driving force. She played Lucy in the Broadway and touring productions of the musical Jekyll & Hyde, and recently, the lead in the Elton John-Tim Rice musical Aida, loosely based on the Verdi original.
It was while she was playing Aida that Cox got a call from Angela Bassett. She said she was directing a TV movie about the life of Whitney Houston and only Cox could do Houston's voice in it. "I was blown away by the call," Cox says. "And I couldn't say 'No.' Big shoes to fill, but I did the job that was supposed to be done. Whitney's vocal tone was amazingly round and very warm, unique. My job was to be Whitney in the songs, and I know there is going to be judgment. But if people like it, I'm very flattered."
Anyone watching Whitney will find it hard to believe that it isn't Houston's voice belting out those familiar but still awe-inspiring songs. Cox sings Greatest Love of All, I Will Always Love You, I'm Every Woman and I'm Your Baby Tonight. "Angela gave me notes on the context of the songs," says Cox. "It wasn't a straight imitation, because the songs in the movie are used in the context of Whitney's life story."
Houston's life, as it unfolds in the movie – which marks Bassett's debut as a director – is pared down to her turbulent relationship with singer Bobby Brown (Arlen Escarpeta). The Houston we meet (played by Yaya DaCosta) is successful and confident, but she turns girly and vulnerable in the presence of Brown. She's 26 and he's 19 when they meet. She's smitten and he's supportive and loving at first, but becomes jealous of her stardom and the relationship spirals into a grisly mess of domestic violence and drug use.
It's an odd movie, one that doesn't include Houston's death three years ago, at age 48, in a room at the Beverly Hilton hotel. It's about the songs, the romance gone sour and it is very much about Houston the performer. From the start, Houston's mother, Cissy, was against the project, said she was "disappointed" with Bassett and refused permission to use the original Houston recordings.
That's where Cox comes in, and she has nothing but admiration for Bassett: "Angela is a force of nature. She was relentless in getting this movie done. She knew Whitney. I didn't know Whitney as well as Angela, but I worked with her. She has this overpowering presence. You knew when Whitney was in the building long before you saw her. I didn't read the script for the movie before I recorded the songs, but it's Angela's project and you trust Angela."
Cox, who is Miami-based these days, sees the Houston songs she did for the movie – there will be no soundtrack released – as a very personal achievement, a twist of fate that came out of the blue. While she still has a career in the dance music genre, her plan for longevity (a word she used several times) is to focus on musical theatre. "I listen a lot to Idina Menzel these days," she says. "Right now, she's my idol. I don't have a dream role in mind, but doing Gershwin would be great. But if I'm asked about what kind of singer I am, I usually say, 'I came from [the] school of Whitney Houston.'"