In an interview about his upcoming History Channel miniseries "Hatfields & McCoys," Kevin Costner briefly spoke about the moving eulogy he gave at Whitney Houston's funeral. He explained that he was initially reluctant to speak publicly in the aftermath of his former "Bodyguard" co-star's death, and turned down several requests to appear on talk shows and news programs, before a call from Houston's cousin Dionne Warwick convinced him to speak at the memorial service. That portion of our conversation follows below.
There are so many character deaths and funerals in "Hatfields And McCoys" that it reminded me of the last time I saw you on TV, which was when you gave a eulogy at Whitney Houston's funeral. How did you know that would turn out to be the right decision?
"I didn't. I had consistently turned down doing sound bytes and going on news programs to talk about Whitney. And the pressure began to build on some level about, 'Well, when are you going to say something, are you going to say something?'
And the truth is, I don't really know how I feel at that moment about anything. Some people are very quick to get on and talk about it, and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's really not my way. And I actually didn't realize that it seemed that a lot of people did want to hear from me on some level. Sometimes you don't understand, and somebody has to say, 'People really do want to hear it.'
And I was thinking, 'Oh my goodness,' and I still didn't think any of the forums that I was seeing [like talk shows] were right, to be honest. There was one notion that maybe I would go on the Image Awards and present a film clip, which would be one or two lines and here's the clip, and she meant a lot more to me than that.
When I got a call from Dionne Warwick, that's when I said I would come. And I'm not saying that was the right forum. It was one the where, I chose to support Dionne Warwick at that moment."
Check back at HuffPost TV for an extended interview with Costner about "Hatfields & McCoys."
