Kevin Costner made ‘a promise’ to Whitney Houston to take care of her – and he kept it

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Kevin Costner has revealed that in some ways, he took the role of playing Whitney Houston’s bodyguard into real life.

During a recent conversation on “Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, Costner talked about the friendship that he and Houston developed while co-starring in the 1992 film, “The Bodyguard.”

In it, the actor – who is currently promoting the first part of his forthcoming film “Horizon: An American Saga” – played a bodyguard for Houston’s character, a superstar singer.

Shepard shared that he’s a bit “obsessed” with Houston, who died in 2012 at the age of 48, having watched two documentaries about her life and said he wanted to ask Costner about his experience working on the film.

Costner said it was a film that he probably should have directed and added that he also produced the film. Houston had been his choice to play opposite him from the start, Costner added.

That caused Shepard to note that Costner clearly had as much a fascination about Houston as he did. Costner explained that the first woman he found attractive was another African American singer, Diana Ross

“I was like 10 years old. I know what pretty is,” Costner said. “I loved her. So it’s not like this giant mystery that she should be the one.”

He said that during the filming he could tell that the director, Mick Jackson, wasn’t entirely comfortable working with Houston during a particular scene.

“I started to guide her,” Costner said. “And I wasn’t trying to usurp my director, but I had made a promise to her, not to f**king him.”

Costner added that the movie was not at first testing well with audiences and “I had promised Whitney she’d be good in it,” as well as promising her mentor, Clive Davis. He was determined to keep that promise, even if it meant reediting the film.

“That was my promise to her: she’s always gonna love me in the song,” he said, referencing her hit remake of the Dolly Parton song, “I Will Always Love You,” which was a major part of the film’s soundtrack. “I was always gonna keep my promise to her.”

His love and admiration for Houston was evident in his eulogy for her at her funeral.

“There were some people that really wanted to speak and there kind of staring daggers at me. What was I going to say,” Costner said. “I started and about 17 minutes later I was done.”

For Shepard, Houston was “once in a generation” talent, which Costner agreed with.

“There was a moment where I knew when Whitney came, I said ‘Look, you can’t have an entourage, but I’m gonna take care of you if there’s a person important to you’ — turned out to be [her best friend at the time] Robyn Crawford — I said, ‘Let’s have Robyn with you… I don’t have [an entourage] you’re not going to have one,’” Costner said “And that’s how we started. And I knew it would never be the same for her when she left me.”

He said that in part due to how the public viewed them after the film, he was her “imaginary bodyguard.”

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