Whitney Houston’s voice was iconic. As one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide, it was essential for English actress and singer Naomi Ackie to master Houston’s speaking voice so that she could fully embody the emotional highs and lows that the titular singer experienced in her life in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

So that the actress and singer could get Houston’s voice right for the biopic, Ackie worked with dialect coaches Tangela Large, Bridgette Jackson, and Denise Woods on how to immerse herself in another performer’s unique voice. Making the job more difficult for the biopic star was the breadth of changes to Houston’s voice over her career due to Houston’s struggles with addiction to cocaine and cigarettes, both of which can impact a person’s vocal performance—not to mention their emotional well-being. Thus, on top of mimicking changes to Houston’s singing voice over time, Ackie also had to work hard to remain in character even when she wasn’t singing, especially in the most emotional moments of the film.

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To prepare for the role, Ackie worked with dialect coaches and immersed herself in Houston’s voice. The singer told The Wrap:

The biggest thing that started to help was when I was unsettled, talking in an American accent with people constantly, so I could explore different emotions too so that when I got emotional, I was still speaking in an American accent, and if Whitney was getting emotional, I could still hold on to the accent, express myself and not drop into East London.

Whitney Houston Was ‘Deeply Psychologically and Emotionally’ Affected by Voice

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Houston was “deeply, psychologically and emotionally” affected by the state of her voice before she accidentally drowned at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in February 2012. According to the singer’s vocal coach and friend Gary Catona — who first met Houston in 2005, at which point she could barely speak — her whole personality changed because of the impact of her deteriorating voice through smoking and drug abuse.

Per CTV News, Catona said:

I Wanna Dance With Somebody is out now in theaters.

She was horrified by it. When someone is a singer at that level, their voice is so much of whom the person is. She identified with her voice. As her voice started returning, lo and behold, her personality began changing, just as I predicted. She became more confident, she became who she really was - funny, charming, an intelligent person. Her self-esteem began rising. But what would happen was that I would work with her, and she’d get her voice back to some extent, and then she’d take off. She’d try to sing here, or she’d try to sing there. Rather than getting her voice back completely, which would have secured her legacy, she got caught up in her lifestyle again, and she began practicing habits that were not beneficial to her voice.