Costner, Houston Steam Up 'The Bodyguard'

Date: November 28, 1992
By Dan Bloom, Daily Yomiuri Staff Writer

From The Daily Yomiuri
Submitted by: Larry A.


Kevin Costner's latest movie The Bodyguard, which costars Whitney Houston in her film debut, unofficially premieres tonight in Tokyo.

A suspenseful love story set in Hollywood during the annual Academy Awards presentations, the movie has already garnered good reviews in the United States. Three sneak previews at the Milanoza Cinema in Shinjuku (two in the evening and one after midnight) will give Costner and Houston fans here a chance to see the film a week before its official release Dec. 5 in theaters across Japan.

Costner was in Tokyo recently to promote the movie during a four-day media blitz organized by Warner Brothers, the film's distributor.

At a press conference at the Imperial Hotel, Costner spoke about his love for movies and baseball and his admiration for filmmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

Dressed in an off-white suit, looking like he just stepped out of The Untouchables, the 38-year-old Costner said he was happy to be visiting Japan for the first time and appeared quite moved by the large turnout of Tokyo press people.

More than 200 people packed the conference room, not to mention about 50 young women unconnected to the media who somehow managed to sneak in.

Costner, who grew up near Hollywood in southern California and graduated from the University of California in Fullerton, explained why he chose to try to make a career in films.

"I love the two hours when you're alone in the dark in a movie theater," he said. "When the curtain opens, you just know something fantastic is going to happen."

When a reporter asked him about the importance of The Bodyguard in his career, Costner replied: "It's just a movie. Not as deep as Dances With Wolves or JFK, obviously. But Larry Kasdan is the best writer we have in Hollywood, and Whitney was great to work with. In fact, I waited for a year to get her. We postponed the movie for a year to be able to work with her.

"The movie is basically a modern Hollywood love story. I think the best stories focus on how men and women get along, or don't get along."

Costner also mentioned that The Bodyguard has a minor connection to Japanese cinema.

"Let me tell you a little story," he said, ever the Hollywood showman. "Larry (Kasdan), who is a good friend of mine, idolizes Kurosawa. There's even a segment from Kurosawa's Yojimbo in our film. Larry put it in, in homage to Kurosawa."

When asked about how he chooses his film projects, and what he looks for in the many scripts that are submitted to him by agents and directors, Costner said: "I choose all my movies on the basis of whether or not it's a good story. Not: will it make money? Not: if it allows me to stretch as an actor--although, of course, I like to do that--but if it's a good story."

Costner also confessed that he likes to make movies that will play to audiences around the world.

"I don't make movies just for Americans anymore," he said. "I want my movies to play on a global basis, to appeal to many different cultures and peoples."

Fielder Of Dreams

When asked by a U.S. television correspondent based in Tokyo if he intended to participate in a scheduled practice session with a visiting U.S. all-star baseball team at Tokyo Dome while he was in the city, Costner, who has made two baseball movies (Bull Durham and Field of Dreams) smiled boyishly and said: "It's in my mind to hit a home run tomorrow. I do love baseball, I really do."

(For the record, he didn't hit a home run, but photographs of Costner throwing the ball inside the ballpark later appeared in several Japanese celebrity gossip magazines.)

Costner's next film will be with Clint Eastwood, he said.

"Clint plays the good guy and I play the bad guy," Costner added. "It's a very good and very sad film."

Also on Costner's schedule is a film about Michael Collins, an Irish civil war hero who was gunned down in 1922.

"I went to Ireland last summer to scout around and do some research," he said. "But we haven't started filming yet. Maybe next year."

Costar Whitney Houston could not come to Tokyo with him to promote the movie for two major reasons, Costner said: she had other commitments and she is five months pregnant.

Houston, married to U.S. singer Bobby Brown, told Costner that she always had wanted to try her hand at acting and was honored to be in his film. According to Costner, he went to one of her concerts a few years ago, fell in love with her voice and stage presence and asked her to read Kasdan's screenplay.

She did, and she liked it.

At the Tokyo press conference, Costner was also asked about the interracial storyline in The Bodyguard.

"I don't see colors," he said. "I never have. In fact, in the movie, we don't even allude to the characters' racial backgrounds at all. Is there anybody in this room who has a problem with this?"

Nobody said a word.

As the press conference was coming to an end, the lights went down, a popular Whitney Houston song came up on the sound system and a Japanese person dressed like Whitney Houston, wig and all, stood up for a bit of staged "theater" arranged in advance.

Costner, seemingly surprised, studied the situation for a moment from his seat on the dais, and then gallantly stood up, walked over to the playful impersonator and picked "her" up amid applause from the press.