Movies Watch Cinderella superfan Naomi Ackie find out Brandy is reprising role: 'That's gonna make me cry!' The 1997 musical taught the I Wanna Dance With Somebody star that anything was pooooo-ssiiiiiii-blllllle. By Lester Fabian Brathwaite Lester Fabian Brathwaite Lester Fabian Brathwaite is a staff writer at Entertainment Weekly, where he covers breaking news, all things Real Housewives, and a rich cornucopia of popular culture. Formerly a senior editor at Out magazine, his work has appeared on NewNowNext, Queerty, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker. He was also the first author signed to Phoebe Robinson's Tiny Reparations imprint. He met Oprah once. EW's editorial guidelines Published on December 23, 2022 10:00AM EST ABC's production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella starring Brandy, and produced by Whitney Houston, had a profound impact on a lot of kids when it premiered in 1997. One such kid was Naomi Ackie, who recalls this being the first time she saw Houston on television and it inspiring her to become a performer. Now, 25 years later, Ackie is portraying the late singer in Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody. Imagine her surprise, then, when she found out Brandy is reprising her role as the Disney princess in The Pocketwatch, the newest installment of the Descendants movie franchise. Naomi Ackie at the premiere of "Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody'. Dave J Hogan/Getty "Are you serious?" Ackie asks in the video above when informed of the news. "No, that's going to make me cry! That's beautiful." Ackie then recounts taking the songs from the movie, rewriting the verses, and putting on shows by herself in her room. "I was obsessed with the fact, and I didn't know it at the time, I didn't know how much it meant, but I was obsessed with the fact that [she] was a Black Cinderella and that meant a lot to me," Ackie says. "At the time I was probably like five or six, so my soul knew it, [but] my head couldn't think about it." Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody is now in theaters. Related content: Brandy to reprise her role as Cinderella in new Descendants film I Wanna Dance With Somebody's Naomi Ackie on the Whitney Houston wigs she stole from the set Brandy dons a Cinderella gown again for a medley of the movie's musical numbers