HEATHER HEADLEY

Black singer Heather Headley on roof top !!!!

Question: How are you going about approaching the character and approaching the songs to make them your own?
Headley: I've been saying this: I can't be Whitney. I am not capable of being Whitney Houston. I had to stop listening to the records because they're intimidating. She really did have one of the best voices that we have ever been privileged to hear. And, I'm very happy that this is not a biopic, so it's not about her life. But in the same vain, it's like trying to come in after Barbra Streisand. You're trying to do Funny Girlafter Barbra Streisand did it. You're trying to do Hello, Dolly! after Carol Channing — it's a tough thing. So, for me, I think the big thing has been to find my own Rachel. Of course, giving the honor and the kudos to Whitney's version, but just finding my own Rachel, within my body, within my voice because it is an original show — but yet it's not. I think there are a lot of people, especially now, who are walking in going, "Oh, you have to be Whitney," but I can't. I'm incapable of such. You know what I mean? So the deal is now to find — kind of treat her — as though it was Aida or just learning a new part. What is she to me? What do I feel? And, the nice thing about it is that…it's been adapted. And, so with [writers] Lawrence Kasdan and Alex Dinelaris, they changed it. There are new emotions, new relationships popping up, new everything, so I do have to find a whole new path down that road, but they are some very high designer shoes to fill!

Question: How would you describe the Rachel that you're playing?
Headley: She is a huge pop star, but has her own demons and has kind of been brought up in the spotlight and has her insecurities — has her fears. There's the fear of, "I have to succeed, but can I? Can I not?" … You have these insecurities on the inside that sometimes make you act out in not the best of ways. And, on top of that, she's a broken girl, which is the best story. It's about broken people, and these two broken people can find each other in each other's arms…

	Headley and Lloyd Owen
	photo by Matt Crockett

I remember being a broken girl and my husband coming in and kind of picking up all those pieces and putting them together. When you find the right person, you can just be. You can be you. You can pull that mask down and say, "I don't have to be tough today. I don't have to be cold today, and I don't have to be this…" So that's my thing about finding her. I'm not trying to base her on anybody's life or anything like that and be like, "Oh, she's based on this pop star or that." It's just knowing what people go through…CONTINUE