Whitney Houston interviewed, by By Gary Susman, 12/12/1996
"I think Hollywood saw me as they did Streisand, when Streisand was first coming out: 'We can hire her for the movie, but we need her to sing.'"
Mr. Showbiz: How closely did you identify with Julia, your Preacher's Wife character: a woman of faith, a mother, a singer, a wife with a troubled marriage? There seem to be a lot of superficial similarities to your own life.
Whitney Houston: Very superficial,
believe me. I could love Julia because she was simple, very standard, very
basic. The only thing that threw her off was Dudley. He was very worldly
for her. This is a woman who was raised in the church. Her father was a
minister, her husband's a minister, her mother was the preacher's wife.
It's a whole circle of things. She never went out of that realm. So for
her to meet this guy, and he's sweeping her off her feet, was very tempting.
But she stayed true to her faith and her husband and what she believed
in, which was marriage, family, community, love, that whole thing. I like
Julia for that because her life doesn't get complicated like mine can get.
Do the complications in your life come from being under the microscope or balancing being a wife and mother with having a career?
There are always complications in that. I was never a wife or mother, so I'm growing. I'm learning. I've had a career for the last thirteen years. That part I've got down-pat. But now there's certain things that my daughter will do or say, and I'll go, "Okay, let me think about it for a minute." The other night, she did something, and I got angry, and she looked at me like, "Huh?" And I had to just turn around and say, "I'm sorry. I'm a little under the weather here, and I'm not feeling the same, so I understand it's not your fault. It's mine." So she respects me for that, and I respect her for it. When she does something off-the-wall, she'll say, "Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it." So I'm learning. Even with my husband, I'm learning.
Was there ever a time when the pressures of public life got to you so much that you wanted to quit?
At one point, I was in London, and the press was coming down pretty hard on me, and I didn't understand why, being that they didn't know me. There were all these stories going on around me, and I didn't understand it. I was confused by the fact that I was a singer, and why wasn't that accepted, as opposed to, "What was I doing in my bedroom?" and stuff like that. It kind of weirded me out. I'd been working so hard and on a tough schedule. One day, I just woke up and was completely crying, crying. My mother was with me at the time, and she went to my room and said to me, "I know it's hard, but God is good, and you have to hold onto that." And she held me by my hand for, like, seventeen hours. I'll never forget it because I was exhausted. Really, I was at my wit's end. And she just talked to me, and she prayed with me, and she prayed over me. I could hear my mother in my sleep, praying for me. And when I woke up, she was still sitting in that same position, with her hand in my hand. That time, it was rough. I think it was the Greatest Love of All tour, back in the late eighties, '88-'89. Now everything's cool. You never know from day to day what life can bring you. I'm happy. I'm grateful. I have no complaints.
Have you consciously developed a movie career in tandem with your singing career, or has it just happened naturally?
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Bet you never expected that the gospel album you've always talked about making would turn out to be a soundtrack album.
Yeah, that's pretty weird. I thought I'd do a gospel album on my own when I was ready. But The Preacher's Wife came up, and Denzel, in his convincing voice, said to me, "We have to do this movie. It has to be done. It is essential that African-American actors play these roles of people who have a life, people who care, people who give, people who believe, people who have faith in the community and stick with that. Because a lot of that has been drained out of the urban communities. Children don't have fear anymore. They don't have any hope. They don't respect their parents." And we just talked, he and I and his wife, about what was happening to our youth and how important it was to concentrate on that. And after he talked to me for about an hour or two, he cornered me and said, "We've got to do this!"
Was recording the music for the film just the same as making any other album?
No. I can make records off the top of the bat. I know how to make records. But this film was not making a record. It was telling a story. Each song had to go hand in hand with the scene. Even the secular stuff, the contemporary music, I had to be very careful with it. You can't mix gospel and contemporary and expect it to really come out straight. And then you have a Christian community looking at you, saying, "Well, you can't put the devil's music and God's music together." So I had to be very careful. It's a fine line.
"The movie star stuff I wasn't crazy about. I'd already had a career, a full one. So getting into movies was just like another plateau in entertainment for me."
What was your biggest surprise in getting to know Denzel Washington during the making of The Preacher's Wife?
He's funny. He's a very funny kind of guy. You always see him play these serious roles, very stoic, but Denzel is a clown. He likes to joke around a lot. Laugh, laugh, laugh. I found that he was like a big brother, and I was his sister, so that's how we communicated. It was real like that.
You didn't fall in love with your leading man even a little bit?
No! You don't do movies to fall in love. You do movies to work. You go home. I'm already in love. He's already in love. There's no need to look for it anywhere else. No, I didn't, okay?
What advice would you give to Madonna, who, with Evita, may yet match your success in movies as well as music?
It's weird to try and put it into perspective because Madonna is Madonna. Madonna had to choose parts for Madonna. Whitney is Whitney. I had to choose parts for me. I think I've just been basically scared to do things that I couldn't take a bite out of, because I didn't want it that bad. It just happened to me. And I guess, because God gave me this voice, and it all kind of went hand in hand, it worked. I don't know what works for Madonna or Janet. I wanted to be a singer. The movie star stuff I wasn't crazy about. I'd already had a career, a full one. So getting into movies was just like another plateau in entertainment for me. I had no idea that it would go like this. I'm still very careful about what I do and what I choose to do because I don't want to extend myself to some part I can't do.
Do you have any plans to work with your husband on a movie? Bobby once talked about starring with you in a biopic about Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.
That's something he's never discussed with me. I know he wanted to be Marvin Gaye. I suppose I'd be Tammi. But he and I are developing other scripts together. He's out in L.A. He's working very hard.
Your mom plays an uncooperative choral singer in The Preacher's Wife, and you actually get to sass her a bit. How rewarding was that?
Oh, man, we laughed about that. She would say, "You like doing this, don't you?" It was just a role reversal. But obviously, to me in the movie, what was so cool was that Mrs. Havergal was learned enough for Julia to ask her, "What do you think about what I'm doing?" And she goes and accepts it and moves on. But that's my mother. I've played both of those roles. I'd say, "Mom, can I suggest something?" I'd be in the choir and say, "This part should go so-and-so," And she'd say, "We'll try it." Being that she's the choir director, she handles so much, it's incredible.
What role has your father played in your development? Is he still the enormous influence on you he once was?
Yes, he is. Very much so. My father basically taught me, showed me how a man treats a lady. I don't know if that's extraordinary or not. To me it's standard. My father demanded a certain amount of respect, and he gave it. He and my mother were the best of lovers, man, and could fight like cats and dogs. But after it was all over, they laughed and could go to bed at night and laugh about it. Which you must do. You must find that humor. You must go to bed saying, "I can be silly about this whole thing. Let's laugh and forget about it."
If there's something that needed to be discussed, my family would get together and have a meeting. If anybody wanted to call a meeting, we could. Most of the time it was me, of course. It was something silly, like my brother pulled my hair, something off-the-wall. But my parents allowed us to be open to a certain degree. We couldn't get loud, we couldn't holler at them, but we could say what we wanted to say, without disrespect. My dad was the rule-maker of the house, and he still is.
Denzel talks very passionately
about his function as a role model for the African-American community.
Do you take that seriously as well?
To some point, you do. It's certainly in the giving, not in trying to live up to somebody's expectations. It's definitely in the giving. You don't have to desert the community. You just have to put back into it. You don't leave it, you inspire it. You encourage it.
How skeptical were you, going into this movie, given that Hollywood usually treats people who have sincere faith with sarcasm and irony and caricature?
I don't think anybody was concerned about that, for some reason. Today's time and place is crying for this kind of movie. We didn't think about whether or not it would be accepted as far as talking about God and faith and church and singing the gospel and praises to God and all that stuff.
What's your own religious affiliation?
I'm a human. I was raised as a Baptist. I'm still a Baptist. But I just totally depend on God. I just have faith.
So the gospel tradition is something you were raised with, singing in church.
Yes.
Did you feel at all like you were coming full circle, then, playing a gospel choir director in a Baptist church?
I felt like I was doing my duty,
what was required of me. At one point, I didn't know what I was going to
do. How does one incorporate music like this into a film? But God in His
mysterious ways just made it flow. I don't know how that all happened.
But I met some wonderful people with some great music. Reverend [Mervyn]
Warren [the film's music supervisor] was at my right hand because I depended
on him. When I was filming, he had to do the tracks. I had to leap from
the set to the studio so that Penny could have her music and her film,
so I was going back and forth. During the whole time, I wasn't aware of
what was actually happening because I was being led by the Spirit and not
my own calling. I have to tell you that because it's true.