More The Creatives Behind Xanadu... Plus Xanadu on Broadway

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Hi lookers, welcome back to another bite-sized edition of Look Behind the Look.

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Today we are diving into one of the defining films of the 90s,

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The Bodyguards,

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starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner.

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Where were you when you first saw it?

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To this day, you cannot go anywhere without hearing Whitney's I Will Always Love You.

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And I will always

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Love you.

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written by Dolly Parton.

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And while the entire world will never forget her voice,

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most of you may not know some of the behind-the-scenes facts that brought this film

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to life.

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This episode is extra special because I had the chance to sit down with industry

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legend and Academy Award-winning makeup artist,

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Valli O'Reilly.

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We discussed everything from how she got the job to the products that she used on Whitney.

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And we even saw some treasures from the film that she hung on to over 30 years later.

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I hope you enjoyed this conversation as much as I did.

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So what happened was on another movie and they had somebody,

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I guess,

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that was working on the bodyguard doing Whitney's makeup.

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And then I got a call from her manager saying who I'd worked with a lot saying, what are you doing?

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And I said, I just finished a movie.

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Tomorrow is my last day.

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She's like, can you come and do Whitney for this?

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Because she's not she you know, we need to make some changes.

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So I said, are you kidding?

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Of course.

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So she came to the set of the other job I was on.

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And the producer was a friend of mine.

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And I asked him, it was a Paul Mazursky movie.

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I said, would you mind if we kept the, you know, because it means keeping Teamsters there longer.

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I said, would you mind if

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we kept the teamsters just for an hour because Whitney Houston's going to come by

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and I'm just going to do a meet and greet and do a test on her.

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Oh my God.

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And he was like, yeah, no problem.

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And you know,

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everybody else in the,

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that was in the trailer are like,

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oh my God,

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we get to see Whitney Houston.

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So,

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so we did the,

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you know,

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we talked and did a little bit of a test and she's like,

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yeah,

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you're my girl.

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So then I took the job.

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What do you remember about putting the look together for the queen of the night?

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What,

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Well,

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I remembered,

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you know,

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we did some makeup tests and,

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you know,

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I mean,

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basically we used a lot of fashion fair stuff because those were only good colors.

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And I kind of wanted,

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because a lot of people,

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when they made up the black actresses back then,

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they did like kind of a very heavy makeup.

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You know,

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they do lashes and,

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you know,

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it was just like for real life,

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like somebody walking around in their home,

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they're not going to look like they were in a music video.

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Yeah.

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You know, I pretty much for just offset her glamour looks.

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I kept her looking,

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you know,

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tried to make her look as natural,

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but she still was a,

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you know,

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a music icon,

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her character.

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So she still had to look nice.

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But we kind of downplayed it.

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We didn't use lashes until those performances.

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I used a lot of cold pencil on her because it seemed to work.

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She had really pretty eyes and she just was really pretty.

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That makes it easier.

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And I was like, I know that that lipstick, I know what that lipstick is.

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And I have to ask who, like, I need confirmation.

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And so I'm wondering if it was Ruby Woo.

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Oh, the red?

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Actually not.

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Okay.

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It was, I don't know, you're too young, but you know.

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But the – Shiseido used to make these lipsticks that were in these red tubes that were long.

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Yes, yes.

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In the 80s and 90s.

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And they were matte on one end and kind of glossy on the other.

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So it was a Shiseido red.

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And then I actually –

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Yeah, that was before anybody had their own makeup lines.

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It was, you know, it wasn't a MAC color, yeah.

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Oh my gosh, I thought for sure I could be cool enough to call that one.

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People,

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once they discontinued,

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like there was like a big thing on with all the makeup artists in LA anyway,

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I think even in New York too,

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people just rushed to the Shiseido counters and people were buying up these,

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the lipstick colors were so amazing.

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I still have like a little teeny vitamin case where I scooped out the colors and I keep it in my fridge.

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Oh, I love that.

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They did like a really good brown and they did a really good orange.

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Because I remember the era where we were putting powder on our lips and then

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putting like a lacquer over it.

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Do you remember?

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Like it was a two-step process was a big thing.

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You know, if you want to matte a lipstick, what you can do, like I take a tissue.

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And I tear it in, you know, because tissues are usually kind of two layers.

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Right.

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I like open it up and then you can just put it over the lips and then take a little

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bit of like a pressed powder and it sets it and it'll matte it.

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Oh, look at that.

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Stop it.

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Oh, my God, what a treasure.

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She gave me this from the bodyguard.

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She gave this to me as a gift.

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What a treasure.

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It's never been worn.

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You need to wear this every day from now on.

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That is so fabulous.

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Oh, that's fabulous.

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And a lot of times when people give me gifts, they spell my name wrong.

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So I was just happy that...

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But yeah, it was really great.

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It's spelled correctly.

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I was looking for makeup to show because I did use all the Naked's by Ultima,

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which,

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you know,

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a lot of those colors,

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like a friend of mine in New York helped create it.

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But they were before Kevin had his line.

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They were like the Naked's by Ultima.

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Yeah.

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But while I was digging to try to find the makeup,

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there was too much to dig through because I just got back from being out of town yesterday.

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I found an original Spice pencil in the box that has never been used.

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I thought someone's probably going to break into my house just for that.

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Yes, it's going to be me.

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I'm glad I don't know your house.

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One of the most iconic parts of The Bodyguard,

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let alone the 90s,

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is Whitney Houston's breathtaking rendition of I Will Always Love You.

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The song was a cover.

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It was originally penned and performed by country music legend Dolly Parton in 1973.

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If I should stay, thank you, I would only be in.

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Before The Bodyguard came to be,

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Elvis wanted to cover the song,

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but Dolly refused because the colonel,

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his manager,

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wanted the publishing rights.

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That was Elvis's standard deal.

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That's a whole nother story.

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And one little sidetrack fact is this.

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At the end of the Priscilla movie, do you notice that I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton is playing?

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I always thought that was a really cool nod to Priscilla getting her independence

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back because it's Dolly's version of

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And I kind of thought it was like Sophia doing a little middle finger work to Elvis there,

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which I always found to be a nice little touch.

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Sometimes I think, what would it have been like to hear Elvis's version?

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But I understand how it all went down.

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Whitney came along and gave us the ultimate enduring and unforgettable cover that

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touched the entire world,

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truly.

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The song's emotional power and soulful delivery remain inseparable from Whitney and the film's legacy.

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In this clip, Whitney tells the story of how the song came to be and made history.

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I was scared to death going into my first motion picture.

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The Bodyguard was a heavy deal.

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We were on a mission searching for songs for The Bodyguard.

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What would be the song, the song that is going to make this movie tie together?

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Kevin and I,

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of course,

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went through,

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you know,

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Kevin's a music lover,

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so he knows all the old songs,

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new songs,

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you know,

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he loves it.

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So he kind of went through his little collection and he came up with songs that he

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thought were,

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you know,

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suiting for the movie.

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suitable for the movie, and I had some songs of my own.

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Well,

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one day I was in the trailer,

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and we heard Dolly Parton's song before,

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and I said,

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I wouldn't buy it,

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you know,

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because it was a country version,

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and I,

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you know,

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nobody was listening.

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Kevin brought it back to me in the trailer one day, and he said, I'm telling you, this is the song.

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He said, you must listen to the song.

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I cleared the trailer, and I listened to the song, and it hit me.

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I was like, oh, he's so nice.

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I can't go anywhere without singing I Always Love You.

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It's just that song I have to do.

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Now that we've heard Valli's side of the story when it came to Whitney's makeup and

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the origin of I Will Always Love You,

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the story would not be complete without digging into the creative force behind the

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film's costume design and that queen of the night look.

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Do you have the Barbie?

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Susan Niniger, inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Thierry Mugler.

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She created this unforgettable costume that showcased Rachel Maron's superstardom

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and power and vulnerability and otherworldliness.

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In this clip from the official Whitney Houston channel,

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Susan Niniger reflects on their collaboration and how the costuming came to be.

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The idea of working with Whitney and Kevin was so exciting to me.

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Artists who are at the top of their game, and I was going to bring my game to that, too.

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Prior to meeting Mick Jackson for The Bodyguard,

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I really hadn't worked on a huge film,

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so this was my lifetime dream.

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I got a call from the director's assistant saying, Mick loves your work, and he'd like to meet with you.

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So when I went in for the meeting with him, they just started talking to me about the movie.

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There was actually no interview.

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It was love at first sight, and it was a great collaboration with them.

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We brought in a lot of fashion pieces from Europe that wouldn't be seen here in the United States.

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Everything needed to be very unique to set the character Rachel apart from everybody else.

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Our first conversation with Mick Jackson and Jeffrey Beecroft was about the Queen of the Night costume.

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And their inspiration for that was the visuals from Metropolis,

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which is a 1927 German film,

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and Terry Moogler,

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who was a designer designing a lot of breastplates,

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hard pieces in

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incorporated into his fashion designs.

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We also talked about Whitney and her movements and what would make her feel regal.

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I have to give it to Whitney always,

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always,

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always that these costumes were not easy to wear,

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but she always pulled it off.

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Goodbye, Rachel.

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If I should stay, I would only be in your way.

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So I'll go.

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You okay?

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Yeah.

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But I know.

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I'll think of you every step of the way.

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And I will always love you.

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That ending scene will always feel like the 90s answer to Casablanca.

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I still get a lump in my throat right before she asks the plane to stop.

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I used to play it over and over until the tape started to wear out.

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Kids these days will call anyone an icon,

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but Whitney Houston truly is the definition of a true icon and beyond the bodyguard.

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There's so much more to dive into with her.

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Of course, I could talk about her all day.

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We all could.

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You know I love hearing from you guys.

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Tell me about your favorite bodyguard and Whitney moments,

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your favorite looks,

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stories,

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and I'll share them on my sub stack.

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Until next time.

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Don't cry.

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We both know I'm not what you.