In the 90s,
Kevin Costner
was dreaming of making a sequence of
The Coast Guard
, his cult film starring
Whitney Houston
. This time, he had a surprising idea in mind, a project as crazy as touching: having his own
Princess Diana
on the main paper.
An unlikely collaboration… that almost saw the light of day
!
In various interviews over the years, Costner revealed that the Princess of Wales showed genuine interest in the project. With the help of
Sarah Ferguson
, the Duchess of York, who acted as an intermediary, as he revealed in an interview on
The Howard Stern Show
, he and Diana began to discuss the movie, which would mark their debut in cinema.
What happened was that I started talking to her through Sarah and said, “I’m going to make The Bodyguard 2 and I think I can build this around you. Would you be interested?” And she replied, “Yes. My life is about to change.” I didn’t go too deep into it, but I thought I understood what she was saying.
He continued:
I really respect Sarah because it was she who organized the conversation between Diana and me. And she never said: ‘And me? I am also a princess’. She fully supported this idea.
The actor also reminded, in a 2019 interview with the magazine
People
, a memorable call he received about a possible intimate scene in the movie:
I only remember her being incredibly kind on the phone, and she asked: ‘Are we going to have a kissing scene?’ She said that in a very respectful way. She was concerned because her life was being heavily scrutinized.
Last year, he touched on the subject again, completing:
I asked: ‘Do you want there to be one?’ She answered: ‘Yes,’ and I said: ‘Then we will.’ I wasn’t going to make a romantic statement about it. But there would come a moment when we would, and she was so kind about it.
However, he clarified that he did not intend for her to be
just a romantic interest on screen
, but a tender moment would be included because it fit the character and she was okay with it.
A tragedy that will change everything
They say this
initial project began to be developed
around 1996, just before Diana’s life changed drastically. Unfortunately, this dream never came true. In 1997, the princess died tragically in a car accident in Paris. The project was then canceled. For Kevin Costner, it simply wasn’t possible to realize it without her.
I never made this movie because I couldn’t replace Princess Diana.
But things became even more complicated after his death. The actor states that
The revelation of the project upset the royal family.
, which would have reacted badly to the idea that he had considered a movie with the princess.
Despite this tension, Costner still has good memories of Diana — and he even found out much later,
that she had a crush on him
. It was the same
Prince William
Who told you this secret.
About 15 years later… I finally had a very pleasant conversation with Prince William. I was in England and received a message that the prince would like to speak with me. There was no one else there. We sat down and shook hands, and the first thing that came out of his mouth was: ‘You know, my mother kind of had a crush on you.’
The actor recounted the moment with emotion and humor:
I know
, replied jokingly.
It was a very sweet thing. We just talked, and each went their own way, and we never became pen pals or anything like that. But I have good memories of who he was, how I was approached, and what we talked about.
The Coast Guard remains a timeless classic
, and this star-studded sequence will undoubtedly be remembered as one of Hollywood’s greatest “what ifs.” A missed opportunity, but a memory etched forever in Kevin Costner’s heart.
The Coast Guard is available on Prime Video and HBO Max.
Read the article at radarsantri.com
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