Tika Sumpter takes on the role of Delores in the upcoming remake of Sparkle by Salim and Mara Brock Akil.
Highly anticipated to say the least, Tika will star alongside Jordin Sparks and the legendary Whitney Houston. With her acting career blossoming with red hot roles on Gossip Girl and BET’s The Game, Tika is destined to become a household name.
We caught up with Tika to discuss Sparkle and what it was like working with Ms. Houston.
Check out what she had to say below!
Since you’ve blown up on the scene you’ve become friends with everybody, what was it like to work with and be in the same room as Whitney Houston?
Oh my God! It was like a dream come true. My sisters, when they found out I got this part and Whitney was playing my mom…Whitney is like an idol to them and for me, I remember just watching her in her videos and staring at her and how beautiful she is, and her voice and everything.
It was so surreal to have her in the same room, joking around and dancing with us and laughing and talking about deep things sometimes or just hugging us and encouraging us. It was just so cool, I feel so happy to be a part of something that features Whitney in her first acting role in years. I’m excited to be a part of it and I loved every moment of being with Whitney.
You guys looked like a family on set.
Family, for real!
What’s one thing you learned about Whitney?
That she’s freaking funny as anything! She loves to have fun. She loves it. What I did love about Whitney was there was no ego, at all. If you’re Whitney Houston you kind of can (have an ego). I don’t care where you’ve been, you’re Whitney Houston. You can come in the room and say anything, but she had none of that in her at all, at all.
Not one moment of it, and I was blown away by her and her attitude and all the love. I have no reason to have an ego ever in my life if one of the premiere superstars of our day has absolutely no ego. She’s just nice to everybody, very nice to everybody and I took that with me. She’s a human being and I think we forget that, that people are just human and are just trying to get by everyday.
