Costner Has Big Spoiler About Bodyguard Poster

'That wasn’t even Whitney actually'
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 23, 2019 6:04 AM CDT
Costner on Iconic Bodyguard Poster: That Wasn't Whitney
"The Bodyguard" poster in question.   (Warner Brothers)

Seven years after Whitney Houston's death and 27 years after the release of The Bodyguard, Kevin Costner has a bit of a spoiler: The shot of him carrying Houston on the smash hit's poster, well, wasn't exactly that, reports EW. "That wasn’t even Whitney actually," Costner says. "She had gone home and that was her double, and her head was buried into my shoulder, which was appropriate anyway. ... It was so evocative." Studio brass at Warner Brothers weren't crazy about the shot, he says, because it didn't show Houston's face or take advantage of her star power at the time. "And so they sent me like five mockups where they put her head [on it] where she’s looking [out]. I said 'Guys, I think we had it the first time.' That ... ended up being the poster."

EW notes that Costner and Houston's onscreen chemistry translated into real life friendship, with Costner speaking at her funeral. Costner credits the film's script for the chemistry, saying, "It just caught [Whitney] at a really high moment or actually created a high moment for her. The words provide the chemistry in a way." (More The Bodyguard stories.)

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