Kevin Costner revealed the one thing he did that made CNN melt down
Kevin Coster is one of the biggest TV and movie stars of all time.
His career exploded in the 1980s and is still running strong to this day.
And Kevin Costner revealed the one thing he did that made CNN melt down.
Kevin Coster says he ignored CNN’s instructions for his eulogy for Whitney Houston
Singer Whitney Houston was one of the greatest musical talents of all time.
Thanks to her once-in-a-generation voice Houston topped the charts with hits like “ I Want to Dance with Somebody,” “I’m Your Baby Tonight,” and “Love Will Save the Day.”
She tragically passed away in an accidental drowning at the age of 48 in 2012.
Actor Kevin Costner – who became friends with Houston while filming 1992’s The Bodyguard – delivered one of her eulogies.
Coster told podcast host Dax Shepherd that the speech he wrote ended up clocking in at 17 minutes long.
“I had been working on this speech…and I tried to compile everything I wanted to do and finally crafted this speech,” Costner stated.
Costner said he then got word from CNN that they would like him to shorten the speech so they could fit in commercial breaks to which he told them to pound sand.
“Somebody said, ‘CNN’s here, they wouldn’t mind if your remarks were kept 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 added.
Costner said he was initially at a loss for what to say.
“I could feel the weight on her, now it’s shifted to me,” Costner continued.
But Costner explained that a visit to the church in Newark, New Jersey, where Houston began singing in the Church choir gave him all the inspiration he needed.
“What am I going to say about this little girl? [I] went back to that church in Newark and it was filled. It was electric. There were two bands playing, the church was alive. It was like, boom!” Costner concluded.
The Bodyguard
Thanks to the onscreen chemistry between Costner and Houston, The Bodyguard became one of the smash hit films of 1992.
The movie grossed $411 million against a $25 million budget as fans bought tickets in droves to see the romance between Costner – playing a former Secret Service agent assigned to protect Houston’s character – and her play out.
The movie’s soundtrack also became one of the biggest hits of all time selling 45 million copies thanks to Houston’s cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.”
“I Will Always Love You” sold 24 million copies as a single making it the top-selling female single of all time.
Costner himself knew right away what the appeal of the movie was.
“When movies are working at their very best, they’re about moments and images that you’ll never ever forget,” Costner said of the film at the red carpet premiere.
Costner later told Variety the release of “I Will Always Love You” ahead of the movie’s debut added to the allure and that the song changed music and film forever.
“I don’t think we’ll ever forget when that little song came out, that [Houston] just blew up,” Costner told EW in 2022.
“She sang the first part of it a cappella and musically the world was never the same. We have a moment of her in that movie we’ll never ever forget that and I think that when movies are working at their best, that’s what can happen,” Coster concluded.
