Naomi Ackie on how she learned Whitney Houston’s voice for I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Naomi Ackie recently explained how she had prepped herself to become Whitney Houston.

In a new interview with PEOPLE, Ackie discussed how she learned the movements and mannerisms of the late iconic singer for the movie Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

“There were many different elements: How do I prepare myself vocally, singing-wise? The accent work took about six months to get really comfortable with it,” said the 31-year-old.

The British actress continued, “And how do I prepare myself physically? In terms of movement, I worked with my amazing friend and my movement coach, Polly Bennett, and we kind of split it all up.”

The outlet reported that Bennett is famous as a movement coach on the recent Elvis movie starring Oscar nominee Austin Butler.

Ackie pointed out, “Everyone has certain cadences. Everyone has a sort of inner rhythm. And if you study it and practice it enough, the hope is that it comes out really naturally.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ackie also expressed her desire that late singer would become “a fan of the movie”.

“I would hope she would be like, ‘Okay, Nai, you did a thing!’” remarked the actress.

Ackie further stated, “Also, she might have loads of notes and I'd just be like, ‘Great — let's do another one. Direct me and we can do it again’.”

Speaking of Houston’s addiction, Ackie believed that the late singer’s life was “extraordinary, but the things she was going through were things we all go through”.

“Bringing her into a very human space and treating Whitney with the same compassion we would treat anyone else is really important,” asserted the actress.

In the end, she added, “I think when it comes to the idea of celebrities and icons, sometimes we can be unkinder because our expectations of them are so high.”

Meanwhile, Whitney Houston’s new biopic will be available on digital now.