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The Sparkle Cast Graces the Cover of Ebony Magazine

Jordin Sparks talks about the film and working with Whitney Houston.

(Photo: Ebony Magazine)

Jordin Sparks, Tika Sumpter, and Carmen Ejogo look pretty in pink for the September 2012 issue of Ebony magazine. The Sparkle starlets have been busy promoting their new movie, which hits theaters August 17, and talking about working alongside the late Whitney Houston on her final film.

The movie centers around three singing teenagers from Detroit who form a group in the late 1960s. Sparkle, played by Sparks, is a talented singer at the forefront of the trio who struggles to overcome issues with her single mother (Houston) and her two sisters.
“I think if Sparkle were here now, and a real person, we would be best friends. She’s been wanting [fame] her whole life. Music is all she thinks about; it’s all she has ever wanted to do…That’s how I felt when I was growing up,” said Sparks.
When she dropped by 106 & Park earlier this summer, Sparks talked about working so closely with Houston for the film.
"She was amazing and it was one of those things where I was so intimidated because it was my first film and the character [Sparkle] is such a huge part in the film and it's my first role and Whitney's in the movie and the whole entire cast. I was just like whoa," she said. "And Whitney kind of went though the same thing with The Bodyguard. Kevin Costner was so huge and it was her big thing and there was that kinship there. I didn't have my parents or anybody there because I just needed to focus and Bobbi Kristina was at school, I was the youngest person on set and she was so motherly. I'll cherish that forever."
Though the movie has yet to be released, Simon & Schuster turned the screenplay into a novel and a Broadway adaptation is in the works. In the meantime, catch these behind-the-scenes photos of the much-anticipated film and tell us, will you be watching Sparkle when it hits theaters this Friday?
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