Angela Bassett Defends Her Ability to Direct Lifetime’s Whitney Houston Biopic

It’s been a rocky road, but Lifetime’s Whitney Houston biopic is finally finished filming.

Now that it’s a wrap, director Angela Bassett is speaking out against critics to feel she doesn’t have the right to tell Whitney’s story. She appeared on HuffPost Live and answered a viewer’s question regarding the controversial biopic.

She said:

“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? 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.”

Watch Angela speak on it around the 10:15 mark below.

The biopic doesn’t have a premiere date yet — but we’ll definitely be tuning in.