Kevin Costner says CNN tried to shorten his eulogy at Whitney Houston’s funeral, but he refused: ‘I don’t care’

During filming in 1992 The bodyguardCostner and Houston became close and remained great friends until his untimely death in February 2012. Fast forward to 2024, and Costner appeared as a guest on the June 3 episode of Dax Shepard. Armchair expert podcast, Variety reported.

“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 Shepard of his selection to speak in honor of Houston during his funeral. “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.

Despite his initial reservations about speaking at Houston’s funeral, he managed to do so with the help of Houston’s cousin and Grammy-winning singer, Dionne Warwick, who urged him to do it. Costner’s sentiments ended up lasting 17 minutes.

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

When The bodyguard Released in theaters, it became the “second highest-grossing film of 1992,” according to Variety. The now iconic film grossed a whopping $411 million worldwide.

Additionally, songs like “I Will Always Love You” and “I Have Nothing” were the basis of the film’s soundtrack which was nominated for Album of the Year, which it won at the Grammys 1994. The project still holds the record for the best-selling motion picture soundtrack of all time.

“I don’t think we’ll ever forget when that little song came out, that it just blew up,” Costner told Entertainment Weekly in a 2022 interview. “She sang the first part of it a cappella and musically , the world has never been the same again. 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.