Teyana Taylor provides update on Dionne Warwick biopic, admits it's a 'big job'
Teyana Taylor says she has a "big job" on her hands with her Dionne Warwick biopic.
Teyana Taylor is "nervous" about her upcoming Dionne Warwick biopic as she reveals she has been given "a lot of creative control".
The 'Walk On By' hitmaker, 85, personally chose lookalike actress Teyana to portray her in the upcoming flick, and in an update on the progress of the production, the 34-year-old 'Coming 2 America' star confessed it's a "big job" and they are taking their time so it's "perfect".
She told PEOPLE: "We have everything kind of set in stone and everything together. It was a little slowdown, of course, with the unfortunate things that have taken place. But everything is so up and running.
"It's still going and Ms. Dionne has so much career. So even trying to consolidate... I just want it to be perfect."
She added: "I want this to be perfect and I want to sell her story and I just want everything to be perfect.
"But I'm in such a great space with it. We're in a great space. We spend a lot of time together. So it's just like, I'm super excited. It's a big job. It's a big job."
Teyana didn't want to proceed unless Dionne felt "safe" emotionally.
She explained: "She feels so safe and that has been the most important thing for me. Her safety, mentally, emotionally, everything."
Noting that she has a far bigger role than just playing the music legend, she continued: "So I think that's another reason why I took a little while because I needed to make sure it was in the right hands. She's given me a lot of control, like a lot of creative control, so I'm taking on even a bigger job than just portraying her.
"I have a lot of production work, directing work to do, a lot of different things like that so I'm just really making sure everything is perfect."
Dionne previously said there is no one else that could portray her other than "triple threat" Teyana.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column last year, she gushed: “She is a triple threat, she sings, she dances and she is an actress.
“I have seen her films, I got to know her and as I got to know her I found that she was doing all of the research that she could find on me.
“She knows more about me than I know about myself.”
She added: “I personally chose her – based on a couple of photographs I found.
“One of her and one of me.
“We had them interposed together and I can’t think of anybody else who would ever do it.”
Dionne had teased the project back in 2021 although she had suggested that it was going to be a television series.
The music legend told Entertainment Weekly: "(Teyana) is certainly a talented young lady with whom I've had the pleasure of interfacing.
"She's very excited about the prospect of being involved, and she's also going to be very, very much involved in directing it and putting together parts and parcel of how we see this going."
