Kevin Costner agreed to speak at Whitney Houston memorial after emotional call from Dionne Warwick

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Kevin Coster has revealed he was convinced to speak at Whitney Houston’s memorial after an emotional appeal from music legend Dionne Warwick.

The 69 year old man Yellow stone the star became close to the “I Will Always Love You” singer when he played her love interest in the hit 1992 film The bodyguard. They remained close friends for 20 years until Houston’s death at age 48 in 2012.

Costner was one of eight speakers at his funeral, which took place that year. Others included his sister-in-law and manager Patricia Houston and Warwick.

Costner had initially chosen to mourn Houston privately, but was unable to refuse Warwick’s request to participate in public tributes to the singer.

Talk to People, the actor said it wasn’t his “first instinct” to “rush to the mic” after Houston’s death. However, when Warwick called, the actor said he could “tell in her voice that she was broken.”

“I told him yes even though I had told him no all week,” he said. “I heard in her voice how tired she was, how many decisions she probably had to make, who would speak, who wouldn’t speak…I (just) said, ‘Yes.'”

However, after hanging up, Costner immediately began to have doubts about his commitment. “I ask myself, ‘Why am I I Speaking? I was just his imaginary bodyguard,’” he said.

Even on the day of Houston’s memorial service, which took place at New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, the actor still had doubts and tried to convince other celebrities in attendance to reprise the role in place.

“I remember looking back and seeing Diane Sawyer and Oprah Winfrey…I think they were sitting together, and I was like, ‘Can you do my speech?’ ” he said. “I really wanted them to do it. I didn’t want to go up, but I did.”

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Earlier this month, Costner revealed that he refused to cut his 17-minute eulogy short when asked to keep his speech brief for the television networks broadcasting the memorial service.

“I had been working on this speech…and I tried to compile everything I wanted to do and I finally wrote this speech,” Costner told Dax Shephard on a recent episode of The Actor. Armchair expert 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 it. They can run the ad while I’m talking, I don’t care,'” Costner recalled.

“(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! »