Kevin Costner Saved The Bodyguard's Classic Whitney Houston Moment From Pushback
Here's a classic from Hollywood's "Nobody Knows Anything" files (a three-word bit of industry wisdom coined by "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" screenwriter William Goldman in his book "Adventures in the Screen Trade").
You didn't need to know much of anything about the film business in the fall of 1992 to predict the box office success of Mick Jackson's "The Bodyguard." Kevin Costner was at the height of his movie stardom coming off the previous year's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "JFK," while his co-star Whitney Houston (making her big-screen acting debut) was one of the most popular recording artists on the planet. The film would have to be an all-time turkey to fall short of profitability.
Based on a 17-year-old screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, "The Bodyguard" underwhelmed critics, but connected strongly enough with its target audience to pull in $122 million at the domestic box office (on a reasonable $25 million budget). The film, however, wound up playing second fiddle to its soundtrack, which, powered by Houston's dynamite cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," sold 45 million copies worldwide on its way to becoming the third highest-selling LP in the history of the music industry.
Houston was already huge, but "The Bodyguard" launched her career into the stratosphere. Even though the movie was a slog, Houston proved in her first time out that she was a blindingly brilliant movie star with legit acting chops. Meanwhile, she hit a level of pop stardom only a few singers –- Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and maybe Taylor Swift -– have reached before or since.
And if her record label had been calling the shots on the recording of her defining song, it might've completely ruined everything.
Arista feared Houston's voice wasn't enough
When Kevin Costner dropped by The Kelly Clarkson Show to promote his new Western "Horizon: An American Saga –- Chapter 1," he told the pop-singer host that, back in 1992, Arista, the label created by music industry king/queenmaker Clive Davis, was cool to Houston's initial recording of "I Would Always Love You."
Arista's biggest issue with Houston's rendition was the a cappella opening verse, which they thought would keep record stations from playing it. Fortunately, Costner, who also produced "The Bodyguard," pushed back on behalf of his co-star. "They weren't that wild about it on the record side of things," said Costner. "I said, 'Well you guys need to get over that. Don't be too sure they won't do it on the radio.'"
Costner may not be a music man, but the "Field of Dreams" star knows a thing or two about moving an audience to tears, and his instincts here were totally on point. As he noted to Clarkson:
"Whitney was doing almost an apology moment at that point. And what better way to let someone know they really mean what they're singing to you than when they say, 'I don't even need the music behind it. Let me sing to you what I feel about you.' The band kicks in, and we know when it does the hair on your arm stands up.'"
The record sales don't lie, nor does the fact that you can't hit up a karaoke night without hearing someone drunkenly mangle it. As for Parton, that the country music legend considers hearing Houston's rendition of her "little old song" to be one of the proudest moments of her life says it all.
So thanks, Mr. Costner, for talking Arista out of making a colossal mistake (and costing itself untold millions of dollars in the process)!