Director Adam Shankman has become the go-to guy for musicals in Hollywood with titles like Hairspray and the upcoming Rock of Ages on his resume. Small wonder, considering Shankman began his career as a choreographer working with stars like Whitney Houston on the 1990 video, "I'm Your Baby Tonight."
"It was unbelievable because it was only my third music video," Shankman, 47, told Celebuzz. "Julian Temple, who was a big director at the time, asked me to do it."
What was Whitney like on set?
"Whitney was incredibly nice to me and super supportive," he confided. "She stayed really supportive during all of the years that I was choreographing and treated me like I was her little baby."
"I am grateful to say I never saw her during the decline. It's incredibly sad. That's a star that went out too early."
The video, which was shot around New York City, took over three days to film with Houston and the crew working 18 hours at a time.
"We worked really hard and she was an absolute joy," she said about the experience. "She had more dresses than I've ever seen before in my entire life!"
Since then, Shankman has gone on to direct movies like The Wedding Planner and Bringing Down the House. In fact, Shankman spilled to Celebuzz that he was approached by Tom Cruise to direct the summer's Broadway musical adaptation, Rock of Ages.
"What he said to me is, 'I want to do a musical,'" he recalled. "So when this opportunity came up, I thought, 'Oh my God, one of the biggest movie stars in the world playing one of the biggest rock stars in the world!'"
In the movie, Cruise, 49, plays Stacee Jaxx, a Jim Morrison and Axl Rose-inspired rocker who spouts enigmatic aphorisms and exercises his libido as casually as answering the phone. The Impossible Impossible actor also trained with a vocal coach for the flick and even performed his own songs, including a rousing rendition of Journey's Don't Stop Believing before a stadium of fans.
"There's no question why Tom is Tom," Shankman added. "Somebody asked me the other day, 'Do you think Tom could have a music career? I said, 'I think if Tom Cruise decided he wanted to be an invisible water buffalo, he could do that too."
Check out Celebuzz breaking down Rock of Ages below.
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