Actress Yaya DaCosta will be making her first debut in the upcoming LifeTime movie -- portraying music icon, Whitney Houston, which is directed by Angela Bassett, who co-starred with Houston in 1995's Waiting to Exhale.

With bouncy curls, blue eyeshadow and bright red lips, the 31-year-old America's Next Top Model alum certainly looks the part and perfectly channels the singer's 1997 Whitney album cover in this first look photo.
DaCosta also looks right at ease in the arms of Arlen Escarpeta, the 33-year-old actor who will be playing Bobby Brown on the small screen. As previously reported, Bassett—along with the rest of the movie's cast and crew— told CNN they aren't trying to rehash the most troubled times of the late star's life and career, but they can't entirely gloss over them, either.

"Well, we know that drugs were a part of their story and that's certainly an element of their story. We can't tell their story without that," she told CNN. "It's involved, and I hope we can unpack it gently."

The late singer-actress's family is however not involved in its production. "We reached out to them in the early days; of course we're not going to do the movie and not say anything to them," Bassett further explained to CNN.

"I really just want to tell a story about a boy and a girl who fell in love," she explained. "And these are the words and this is the place, and these are are the people on the outside, you know? And I want to be as honest as I can about about doing that."

Via E! News: Houston's 21-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina is not exactly pleased with the movie being made—only because she wasn't casted to play her mother and thanks to Bassett telling Entertainment Weekly she never considered casting her "for a number of reasons."