Loretta Devine Talks 'Waiting to Exhale' Sequel Without Whitney Houston

There could be a sequel to the hit Waiting to Exhale despite the deaths of Whitney Houston and Gregory Hines -- two of the film's key roles and actors, according to an interview with another of the film's stars, Loretta Devine.

Devine, who played Gloria Matthews in the adaptation of Terry McMillian novel, recently discussed her recent TV and film projects with Hollywood Today Live. When the topic of a much-talked-about sequel to the 1995 film arose, Devine excitedly responded that the film is a go, but producers are unsure of how to handle the deaths of Hines and Houston.

"Gregory passed and then Whitney passed, and it's like, you can't start a movie with two funerals, and they were like the key characters. And so everything just sort of got scattered after that," Devine said.

Houston, who played Savannah, one of the best friends of Gloria (Devine), Bernadine Harris (Angela Bassett) and Robin Stokes (Lela Rochon), died in 2012. Hines, who played Marvin King, Gloria's love interest, died in 2003.

The film was released more than 20 years ago, as reported by Centric, and fans have been anticipating a sequel since. But with two main characters -- or at least the actors who played them -- gone, where does that leave McMillian and the riters and producers?

"They're still writing on it for all we know," said Devine. She said that while she feels Houston and Hines are irreplaceable, she is confident that if the decision is made to fill those roles with other actors, there are talented stars who will be able to step up to the plate.

"Oh, hey have so much new, young, great talent ,so it would be limitless girls that could do it," she said.

As for the film's other stars, Devine reported that everybody is on board.

Tags
Whitney Houston
Join the Discussion
Real Time Analytics