Kevin Costner's speech at Whitney Houston's funeral

I would like to thank Dion for the honor of being here and everyone at the church who treated my wife and me with such grace. I'm going to tell some stories, maybe some of them you know, maybe some of you don't. I wrote them down because I didn't want to miss anything the song I Will Always Love You Almost wasn't it wasn't supposed to be in the movie The First Choice was going to be What Becomes of a Broken Heart but it had appeared the year before in another movie and we felt it wouldn't have the impact and that's why we couldn't use it, so What Becomes of our Broken Hearts Whitney returns home today to the place where it all began. and I urge all of us inside and outside across the country and around the world to dry our tears, suspend our pain and perhaps our anger long enough to remember the sweet miracle of Whitney, never forget that and to Bobby Christina Among Us, your mother and I had a lot in common I know a lot of people right now are really thinking she's a girl you're a boy you're white she's black we heard you like to sing but our sister could really sing so what am I talking about Kevin Cner and Whitney Houston have nothing in common well you would be wrong we both grew up in the Baptist Church it wasn't as big as this my grandmother played the piano and led the choir and her two daughters my mom and my aunt sang in it the rest of My family, uncles, aunts and cousins ​​sat outside every Sunday and watched.

My earliest memories are tied to that old church in Paramount. I remember seeing a shovel of gold falling to the ground, people praying about it and I thought something big was going to happen here and I saw my father and the rest of the men build it from scratch. He was probably four years old and always seemed to be in the way he wanted to help. I wanted to be. In the action, one of the men drew a red line where the choir would one day be and said, "Take as many nails as you want, all on this line." It always gave me great comfort to see my mom and aunt sing knowing that they would never fall down that floor where I had worked, the church was the center of our social life and Whitney and I would laugh knowing that it was also the place where you could really get into it. in big trouble, especially when you were allowed to sit with your friends and not your parents in the big church.

I remember being kicked off the bench more than once for whispering and passing notes. I don't think my feet touched the ground as my father dragged me outside in front of everyone. I thought even the preacher prayed. For me, my favorite Whitney story was me sneaking into the church kitchen after communion. I liked the little glasses of grape juice that were left over. I liked how they felt in my hand. He couldn't have been more than six years old at the time, but he would do it. I leaned on the table and one by one I knocked them down having some imaginary conversation with someone.

My father was the one who found me again and asked me what I was doing. I told him that he was a cowboy and that he was drinking whiskey. I don't think my feet touched the ground that day either, it was easy for us to laugh, church was what we knew, it was our private bond. I can see her in my own mind running around here like a skinny girl, knowing everyone, everyone's business, knowing everyone. An inch away from this place, I can also see her trouble with trying to wear that beautiful smile, trying to get out of this and having none of it.

Most days at church were good for us and we both remembered how our parents tried to explain God and the plan He had for our lives and we agreed that there was this feeling, this promise that if we somehow listened With attention, the voice of God would come to us. I told Whitney that she always worried that God was going to ask me to be a preacher. I wasn't sure how much fun ours had been. Whitney told me that she wasn't worried at all and that she wasn't expecting any whispers. She told God that she was going to be like Artha, like her famous cousin Dion, like her beautiful mother.

There can be no doubt in this room that she has joined their ranks and as the debate intensifies in this century (and surely will) about the greatest singer of the last century, as a list is drawn up, it will have little meaning to me if her name is Not in that, but as sure as I am about Whitney's place in musical history, I'm pretty sure she came home from the first time she took center stage here as a teenager , blushing with the excitement of knowing that she had exceeded everyone's expectations. promise of what was to come but she still needed to know from her mother how she was received if she was good enough she could have done better if they really liked me or were they just polite because they were afraid of you these are private questions that Whitney would always have would always follow her in the peak of his fame as a singer.

I asked her to be my co-star in a movie called The Bodyguard. I thought it was the perfect choice, but red flags popped up immediately, maybe me. You should think about it a little. They reminded me that this would be her first acting role. We could also think of another singer. It was a suggestion. Maybe someone white. No one ever said it out loud, but it was a fair question. There would be a lot to write. In this perhaps a more experienced actress was the way to go. It was clear that I really had to think about this.

I told everyone that I realized Whitney was black. The only problem was that I thought she was perfect for what we were trying to do there. It was a bit of relief in the room when we found out that Whitney was going to be on tour and that she wouldn't be available for our movie. The anxiety came back when I said we should postpone and wait a year, that was a lot. for the studio to agree, and to their credit, they did, but not without a screen test. Whitney would have to earn it. That was the first time I saw the doubt, the doubt that came over her that they wouldn't give her the role that would have to be hers.

Great, the day of the test arrived and I walked into their trailer after the hair and makeup artists were done. Whitney was scared, possibly the biggest pop star in the world, she wasn't sure if she was good enough, she didn't think she would look good there. There were a thousand things that seemed wrong to him. I took her hand and told her she looked beautiful. I told her I would be with her every step of the way. Everyone there wanted her to succeed, but I could still feel the doubt that she wanted. tell her that the game was rigged that I didn't care what the proof was that she could fall and start speaking in tongues that I would somehow find a way to explain it away as an extraordinary acting choice and that we could expect it to go on longer And boy, did I?

Weren't we lucky to have her? But that wouldn't have been fair, it wouldn't have been fair to Lawrence Casen, who had written the script 15 years earlier, it wouldn't have been fair to my partners at Warner. Brothers, it was not the right signal to send to Whitney. She took it all in and asked me if she could have a few minutes alone and that she would meet me on set. I was sure she was praying, after about 20 minutes she came. We hadn't said four lines before we had to stop, the lights were off and I walked Whitney off stage back to her room, she wanted to know what was going on and I needed to know what she had done during those 20 minutes.

She didn't say anything just in a way she couldn't do anything so I turned her so she could see herself in the mirror and she gasped. All the makeup on Whitney's face was running, it was running down her face and she was devastated. She did not do it. I felt like the makeup we had put on her was enough, so she wiped it off and she put on the makeup she was used to wearing in her music videos, it was much thicker and Hot Lights had melted it away. She asked if anyone had done it. seen someone had seen I said I didn't believe it so it happened so fast she looked so small and sad at that moment and I asked her why she did it she said she just wanted to look our best it's a tree we could all hang the inexplicable burden on That comes with fame, call it doubt, call it fear, I've had mine and I know the famous people in the room have had theirs.

I asked her to trust me and she said she would. Half an hour later she came back in to do. her screen test and the studio fell in love with her, the Whitney I knew despite her success and world fame was still wondering am I good enough, am I pretty enough, will they like me, it was the burden that made her big and the part that tripped her up at the end Whitney, if you could hear me now I would tell you that not only were you good enough, you were great, you sang the whole damn song without a band, you made the movie, what it was, a lot of Leading Men could have played My part, a lot of guys, a lot of guys could have played that role, but you, Whitney, I really think you were the only one who could have played Rachel Maron at that time, not only were you pretty, you were as beautiful as a woman could be.

And people didn't just like you, Whitney, they loved you. I was once your so-called bodyguard, not long ago, and now you are gone too soon, leaving us memories, memories of a girl who stood bravely in front of this church, in front of those who loved you first in front of those who loved you most and They loved you the longest, then you bravely walked onto the White Hot Light of the World stage and what you did was the rarest achievement, you set the bar so high that professional singers your own colleagues don't want to sing that little country song what would be the point Now the only ones who sing your songs are young girls like you who dream of being you one day and that's why for you Bobby Christina and for all those young girls who are dreaming that dream but maybe thinking that they are not good enough.

I think Whitney would tell you to save your bodies and save the precious Miracle of your own life and then sing with all your heart knowing that there is a lady in heaven who is doing God Himself wonders how He created something so perfect, so go away, Whitney, you will be escorted by an army of angels to your heavenly father and when you sing before him, don't worry, you will be good enough.