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Misc > Interviews

Bodyguard (1)
(Nov. 1992, US TV
Good Morning America
Interviewer: Her name is Whitney Houston and the movie is "The Bodyguard". Whitney Houston, good morning, nice to see you!

Whitney: Thank you.

Interviewer: So, how was it ?!?

Whitney: Woo!

Interviewer: Acting! Did you like it? I mean was it fun?

Whitney: Yeah, it was fun! At times, it was very hard, it took a lot of discipline to do a movie. It's different from videos and music, it's more confining. But yeah, I had a great time! Great experience!

Interviewer: What made you decide to try your hand at acting and why now? Why this movie?

Whitney: I don't know!... It just seemed like a natural progression, another form of entertaining. I wasn't really on a mission looking for "a movie". I just decided that I wanted to do a movie. I didn't know what kind of movie, I didn't know what kind of person I wanted to play (as long as she was a good girl [laughs], had some integrity, and some dignity). That was my position, I really didn't say, "I'm gonna do this movie, and I'm gonna go out on this big journey to look for it", it just kind of came my way!

Interviewer: How did it come your way, Whitney? Did Kevin Costner approach you about this role and how did it all come about?

Whitney: He did! I got word that he had a script written by Larry Kasdan about 15 years ago, and that he was very interested in me playing opposite him. I didn't believe it, so I called my agent and said, "I'm hearing Kevin wants me to play this part in his next movie and she said, "Well let me find out", she did, then she said, "Yes it's true, he wants you to play this part", so I said, "Oh really?"...

Conversations began with his people and my people and I finally got a script, and I read it, and I waited for so long that he called me one day and he said, "Girl, when are you gonna do this movie? why aren't you gonna do this movie with me? I said, "Oh Kevin, I haven't decided that I am or I am not, I'm just really trying to be careful about what I pick and choose." So he said, "Listen, I'm telling you something: if you do this movie with me, I guarantee you it will be something you'll be proud of"...

So I said, "Yeah, OK". And I started reading the script, getting into it, and looking over and stuff, seeing if it was really right for me... I took my time with it and he was getting impatient with me I think, so he called me again and he said, "OK, I'm telling you, you gotta do this movie, and if you don't do it, I've just decided that I'm just not gonna do it, cause I want you to play this part, you're the person to play this part"... So after some time, I said, "OK Kev, I'm gonna do this movie. I think I can."

Interviewer: You certainly put a lot of thought into it though, obviously.

Whitney: Yeah I did.

Interviewer: Let me ask you a little bit about your character in the movie, Rachel Marron. She is, somewhat, like Whitney Houston, isn't she?

Whitney: Somewhat. Uh hu. She is.

Interviewer: Describe her and tell me how you and her are alike.

Whitney: I think that the one thing that makes us very much alike is the fact that we both do the same thing. She's an entertainer, and so am I. So I understand that world which she comes from, and is surrounded by... I think that the fact that she's a strong and very independent person, is very much like myself... Once she decides that she's gonna do something, she's gonna do it, and nobody can change her mind, it's very much like me... But there are great differences...

Interviewer: Like?

Whitney: Rachel is the kind of person who likes to be adored and admired, and likes to be paid attention to at all times...

Interviewer: And you don't ?!?

Whitney: No. No. No!

Interviewer: Why not?

Whitney: I don't need that much! I'm basically to-myself kind of person. I'm very comfortable with myself. I don't need someone telling me all the time, "You're great, you're beautiful, you're fabulous, you're this, you're that". I'm pretty secure knowing what I am and who I am. Rachel is not as secure. She wants to be told all the time. She likes a lot of people around her, I don't like a lot of people around me. She loves that, she lives the business, she drinks it, she sleeps it, she loves it, she wakes up mornings to be in it! Not me.

Interviewer: What was it like working with Kevin?

Whitney: I had the best time working with Kevin! First of all, he's a regular kind of guy. I mean, people see Kevin and they say, "Oh God, how was it being next to him, how was it working with America's hunk and all that stuff, but I'm telling you, from day-to-day working with him, I saw the man that, was the actor, part-director, producer, who cared about your lines, what words you were saying, if they were coming out right... When we came in the morning, we weren't sex-symbols at all. We were ready to work!

Interviewer: It wasn't intimidating at all, being around him?

Whitney: No because he made it very comfortable for me. He was kind enough, and gracious enough, to ensure that I was comfortable, being that it was my first film, he understood that, and he knows what it can be like to be doing your first film so he was really kind and very... very kind!

Interviewer: What kind of advice did he give you in terms of your acting? I know you offered to take acting lessons, and they said not to?

Whitney: Yeah, yeah.

Interviewer: What did he tell you? What sort of suggestion did he give you?

Whitney: The most important thing I think that Kevin taught me, in acting, is to listen, to have contact, to speak without really saying words, to look at each other and to speak with your eyes. Sometimes, dialogue can get in the way. When (the movie audience) look at you, they see what's in here [shows her face] and in here [shows her eyes]. And he taught me that this is the most important place, right in here. Your eyes are gonna tell the story.

Interviewer: I was reading that Kevin Costner cut out some of your nude scenes. Is that true, or is this just some butter for the tabloids, what's the deal here?

Whitney: Waaw ! He cut out out some nude scenes, but there weren't mine. No ! [laughs] It was my double, God bless her... I guess it's all in the edit, when you go in that room, they know pretty much what looks good and what doesn't! So you kind of leave it up to the editor...

Interviewer: Were you approached about doing nude scenes by Kevin or by anybody else?

Whitney: No... I didn't even leave that open for questioning. When I did my contract, that was already said: Whitney will not be showing any butt ! [laughs]

Interviewer: It's something you don't feel comfortable doing?

Whitney: No, no. To simulate making love is one thing... Huh, to be on a set where there are a lot of people, watching you do something that is a very intimate act, is an uncomfortable feeling already. So therefore, I just could not imagine myself doing that with my clothes off. I wouldn't have made it. I just would not have (...) It was not right for me.

Interviewer: It wasn't your thang.

Whitney: Not my thang ! No. [laughs]

Interviewer: You do a lot of singing in the movie. Was that fun to sort of mix both of your careers?

Whitney: (nods) Yes it was. Actually it was a release from being disciplined towards being actress. They were moments when I said, "Oh God! I'm not going to make it". The 6 o'clock in the morning, then being ready at 8, and having to be fabulous by 8'30, they're doing close-up shots on you at 8 o'clock, all that kind of early-morning stuff and it's not really my kind of thing...

Interviewer: (laughing) Tell me about it!

Whitney: Yeah! (both laugh) Like today... But to do the music was like going home for me.

Interviewer: Tell me about 'I Will Always Love You'...

Whitney: Kevin came to me and said, "Whitney I've got this song, it's called "I Will Always Love You", Dolly Parton wrote it, it's a country song but I think you're gonna really love the song. And I said, "He's absolutely right. This is the song". This is the song that's going to tie this movie together, for me, and I think for everyone else when they see it.

Interviewer: So he convinced you to sing this song...

Whitney: Kevin really loves the music. He just loves it. He could reach back until the sixties, he'd go, "Remember this song?"

Interviewer: Can he sing?

Whitney: He's got a nice voice!

Interviewer: Really?

Whitney: Yeah!! He can hum a tune.

Interviewer: What's next on your agenda, other than being a mother?

Whitney: What else could there be?!? Having a baby, looking forward to that, raising a child, hearing, "Mummy!" That's what foremost in my head right now. The movie's done, the soundtrack's done. I'm thinking about doing a gospel album. So I'm just going with the flow. I just wanna have this baby!

Interviewer: Well it's a very big event in your life, take it from me. I wish you so much happiness with your family.

Whitney: Thank you so much.

Interviewer: And the best to your husband Bobby Brown.

Whitney: Thank you.

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