Kevin Costner sure didn’t care about anything more than expressing his feelings for his late The Bodyguard co-star Whitney Houston, as she balked at the idea of cutting the eulogy for commercial purposes.
The actor recalled when someone suggested he summarize what he had saved in the speech about the late Houston as CNN broadcast the funeral live.
“I was working on this speech … and I tried to put together everything I wanted to do and I finally made this speech,” Costner recalled of Dax Shepard’s speech Special armchair podcast.
“Someone said, ‘CNN is here, they wouldn’t mind if your remarks were shorter because they’re going to have commercials.’ And I said, ‘They can get over that. They can play the commercial while I’m talking, I don’t care.’
Costner also recalled how he was hesitant at first to speak at Houston’s funeral, but Dionne Warwick encouraged him.
“I could feel the weight on her, now it’s transferred to me,” Costner said. “What shall I say about this little girl? [I] went back to that church in Newark and was filled. It was electric. Two bands were playing, the church was alive. It was like, boom!”
The actor also recalled Houston’s struggle for the role The Bodyguardas the film’s director, Mick Jackson felt “uncomfortable” casting her.
“I really knew who I wanted,” Costner said. “There was a moment when he trusted me. And as I looked at her and… I started guiding her, and I wasn’t trying to usurp my director, but I had given her a promise—not to argue with him. And [to] the movie.”
She continued, “I had promised Whitney she’d be good at it. And that was my promise to her. He will always love me in song and I would always keep my promise.”
