'Sparkle' Sisters on Building an 'Authentic' Family Dynamic (Video)

The setting may have changed, but one aspect that holds true in Salim Akil’s Sparkle remake is the love of a family.

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In her final acting role, Whitney Houston (Emma) plays a devout, overprotective mother to three aspiring singers, embodied by Jordin Sparks (Sparkle), Carmen Ejogo (Sister) and Tika Sumpter (Dee). The sisterly trio, dubbed “Sister and Her Sisters” in the film, speak with The Hollywood Reporter about how the built an “authentic” family dynamic on-screen.

“It kind of just happened naturally,” says Ejogo. “I feel like it’s real in the way that it reflects how sisters really are…  It’s not always like, ‘Oh, I love you,’ there’s all kind of stuff that goes on and we totally went through that.

“When you are working on a film for six to eight weeks, you are in each other's hair the whole time,” she adds. “It starts to get like a real family dynamic just by the nature that you are together the whole time and I think that's on the screen so it feels authentic.”

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In THR’s review of the film, critic Todd McCarthy writes, “Evidently recognizing that the earlier script was a connect-the-dots affair with little meat on its bones, screenwriter Mara Brock Akil has not only brought the action forward by 10 years but made well-judged decisions about how to revise and moderately enrich the main characters, most of whom bear the same names as before.”

For more from the “sisters,” and a look at the film’s retro fashion, watch the video above.

Sparkle opens nationwide on Friday, Aug. 17.

Email: Sophie.Schillaci@thr.com; Twitter: @SophieSchillaci