“Success doesn’t change you — fame does,” says Whitney Houston in a newly released trailer for “Whitney: Can I Be Me.” The documentary follows the icon’s personal and musical journey.
The spot indicates that the singer wasn’t passionate about the music she was expected to make — or the public image she was pressured to project. “They had a vision for a pop artist,” an interviewee explains. Another adds, “They wanted to present her as a princess.” But according to Houston, she “did not go into the studio wanting to make a pop album.”
Even at the height of her career, when she was winning countless awards and topping the charts with songs like “Greatest Love of All,” “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” and “I Will Always Love You,” Houston felt like she was forced to be someone she wasn’t. As one character recalls, “Her favorite saying was ‘Can I be me? I have made all these people happy, but I still can’t be me.’”
Houston died in 2012. She was 48 years old.
“Can I Be Me” made its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival last month. Directed by Nick Broomfield (“Kurt & Courtney”) and Rudi Dolezal (“Bad Company: Hard Rock Live”), the film hits UK theaters June 16. No word on a U.S. release date yet.
