Kevin Costner says he refused to cut the eulogy short at Whitney Houston’s funeral

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Yellow stone Actor Kevin Costner refused to cut short his eulogy at the funeral of his friend and former co-star Whitney Houston, he has revealed.

The 69-year-old became close to the “I Will Always Love You” singer, in a friendship that lasted more than 20 years, when he played his love interest in the hit 1992 film. The bodyguard .

In 2012, Houston died of an accidental drowning at the age of 48. Costner was one of eight speakers at his funeral, which took place that year. Others included his sister-in-law and manager Patricia Houston, as well as music legend Dionne Warwick.

“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.

His eulogy ultimately lasted 17 minutes, which he refused to shorten until he had said everything he “needed to say.”

Although initially hesitant to speak at the event, he was eventually convinced by “Heartbreaker” singer Warwick.

“I could feel the weight on her, now it’s transferred to me,” Costner said. “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! »

Co-produced by Houston The bodyguard and recorded six new songs for the soundtrack, including her Grammy-winning cover of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love you.”

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Costner recently promoted his new self-financed film, Horizon. The film is part of Costner’s four-part Western passion project, which spans a 15-year period before and after the American Civil War.

THE Dance with wolves The star received a 10-minute standing ovation after the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

In an emotional speech, Costner said he would “never forget” the audience’s reaction to his long-awaited film and thanked those in attendance for giving him their “precious time.”

Costner, who co-wrote, directed and starred in Horizoncalled the reception “such a good time, not just for me, but for the actors who accompanied me, for the people who believed in me, who continued to work.”