Kevin Costner refused to shorten Whitney Houston’s eulogy for funeral

Kevin Costner said during an interview on Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) that he turned down a request to shorten his eulogy for Whitney Houston just so TV networks like CNN could air commercials during the live broadcast of Houston’s funeral. Costner and Houston became lifelong friends after starring together in the 1992 romantic blockbuster “The Bodyguard.” Costner was one of eight people who spoke at Houston’s funeral in 2012.

“I had been working on this speech…and I tried to compile everything I wanted to do and I finally wrote this speech,” Costner said. “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 it. They can play the ad while I’m talking, I don’t care.

Costner’s eulogy lasted 17 minutes, but he was initially hesitant to speak at Houston’s funeral. It was only through Dionne Warwick’s encouragement that Costner agreed to give a eulogy.

“I could feel the weight on her, now it’s transferred to me,” Costner said of his speech at the funeral. “What am I going to say about this little girl? (I) went back to this church in Newark and it was full. It was electric. There were two bands playing, the church was alive. It was like, boom! »

Costner starred in “The Bodyguard” as a former U.S. Secret Service agent who is hired to be the bodyguard of a famous star (Houston) when she is targeted by an unknown stalker. The film grossed $411 million worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing film of 1992, and Houston’s renditions of “I Will Always Love You” and “I Have Nothing” propelled the soundtrack official Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It remains the best-selling film soundtrack of all time.

“I don’t think we’ll ever forget when that little song came out, that (Houston) just blew up,” Costner recalled in 2022 of “I Will Always Love You” and Houston’s success after the film . “She sang the first part a cappella and musically, the world was never the same. We have a moment of her in this movie, we’ll never forget that and I think when movies work at their best, that’s what can happen.

Houston died in 2012 at the age of 48.