Jordin Sparks Reflects on Whitney Houston Friendship at ‘DWTS’ Premiere: ‘She Was So Supportive’

Jordin Sparks is remembering her time spent with Whitney Houston.

As the American Idol alum, 32, kicked off her tenure on season 31 of Dancing with the Stars on Monday, she took a moment to reflect on getting to know the late superstar vocalist while filming the 2012 film, Sparkle.

Following her first performance on the competition dance show Monday, Sparks told reporters including PEOPLE that she has “so many” fond memories of her time spent with Houston, who died on Feb. 11, 2012 at age 48.

“She started playing some amazing music, and somebody did this amazing run,” recalled Sparks. “I was like, ‘Wow, I wish I could do that.’ She looked at me and was like, ‘You can do that. You can do that. Don’t ever tell yourself that you can’t. Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t. Don’t let anybody else tell you you can’t.'”

The Grammy nominee continued, “I’ve carried that with me through a lot of my performances, and she’s really impacted me in that way, to know that you can impact somebody’s life without knowing them for a very long time.”

Brandon Armstrong and Jordin Sparks. Eric McCandless/abc

“I didn’t get to know her for very long, but the time I did spend with her really, really impacted me and I’ve carried it with me since, obviously,” she noted.

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Sparks said Houston was “so supportive” and that “she would be really, really proud” of her former co-star’s Dancing with the Stars journey: “If she was in that audience, she would’ve been standing up and she would’ve been screaming just like all of us.”

Over a decade ago, Sparks made her film debut in Sparkle and starred alongside Houston in the 1960s-set film, which followed the story of a girl group comprised of three sisters.

“Part of the fun of making this movie is definitely the costumes and the hairstyles,” Houston told PEOPLE of the film at the time. “The movie is set in 1963, and we had a great wardrobe, hair and makeup person, and I loved wearing the outfits.”

Whitney Houston and Jordin Sparks. TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

In the same interview, Sparks said that working with Houston was a “dream come true.”

“I sang her songs into a hairbrush when I was little,” she said. “Now she’s acting as my mom and scolding me. It was a dream come true.”

A biopic about the late singer, I Wanna Dance with Somebody, is set to hit theaters Dec. 21 starring Naomi Ackie as Houston. The actress, 30, recently admitted she was “very” nervous to play the “incredible, multifaceted” singer.

“She’s been elevated in my life for so long that it felt like an impossible thing to achieve at times,” Ackie told PEOPLE. “But so many people told me the same thing: If I wasn’t scared and nervous, they’d think something was wrong with me… The biggest challenge was letting my fear of the magnitude of this task take a back seat. Nothing good comes from sitting in fear for too long.”