MOVIE BUZZ: Bishop T.D. Jakes talks Sparkle, Jordin Sparks & Whitney’s Life
Friday, August 3, 2012 at 11:58AM 
Jordin Sparks star of the film, Sparkle, poses for a snap with the film’s producer, Bishop T.D. JakesBy EEW Magazine News & Entertainment Staff
Sparkle is getting great buzz heading toward its August 17 release date and Bishop T.D. Jakes is preparing moviegoers for the highly anticipated film starring the late Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks. In a recent interview with The Examiner’s Jeff Rivera the pastor and movie producer gushed about the flick that he believe fans will “adore.”
On Seeing the Finished Product:
Let me say this, I just went out to Los Angeles, to Hollywood, last week and saw the final cut with all color blown in, and the sound is now right and it's been edited, so it's the final version, and man it is amazing. It is just…wow. I can't wait for everybody to see it. I can't see why they wouldn't absolutely adore the film.
On Working with Jordin Sparks:
Jordin Sparks has this rare, rare girlish quality. She's a grown woman who has an ability to produce an innocence and a naiveté on screen that is very, very rare. She was as pleasant off the set as she was on the set. I mean, I can't remember her saying anything negative about anybody at any time. She's just a good, kind person, and I really sincerely, enjoyed working with her.
On how Sparkle Is So Similar to Whitney Houston’s Life:
I think the oddity about Sparkle is that many of the subject matters that are discussed in Sparkle were things that Whitney lived through in her own life, and working with Whitney on the Sparkle movie. The irony of it all is that sometimes while we were shooting the film, you didn't know whether life was imitating art or art was imitating life, and I think when people see it they'll know why I said that. But, it was just really, incredible to see how there was an intersection there because Whitney plays Effie, the mother, who tried to launch out into a secular career as a singer and it had gone badly, and she is trying to warn her daughters not to go that way.
On What he would Tell Whitney Beyond the Grave:
My comments to her would be that I think she would have been amazed to see how many people really loved her - loved the body of work that she produced, loved her cinematically as well as auditorily, but also I was struck at the funeral by the people who worked closest to her; how much they loved her and how much they wept at her loss.
Read the full interview here.
Reader Comments (7)
Can't wait to see it!
Something in me recoils about this. Call me deep but a Bishop promoting a movie that glorifies a secular career is just not right.
I'm very excited to see this film. Loved Whitney! RIP mama
You know what makes me sad? A bishop is promoting and producing this film and I don't hear him talk at all about anything that glorifies God. But I guess I have to wait and see.
I haven't been to movies all year but I thik I'll head to the theatres for this one
I see this is something with a purpose. I think there will be a deep message in the movie that will make us all pay attention to what we are supposed to learn from Whitney's life.
at least he's honest, you know how many Bishops act like they dont want to see it and do so in private at least He's honest, let GOd be his judge.