Whitney Houston was not the woman pictured on The Bodyguard poster. Nearly 30 years later, Kevin Costner is revealing the news, noting that the popstar had gone home for the day. The iconic poster was all over everywhere in 1992 when the movie was at the top of the box office and the soundtrack at the top of the Billboard charts. The movie featured Costner's character as a bodyguard put in charge of protecting Houston's popstar character Rachel Marron.

When asked about The Bodyguard poster after all of these years, Kevin Costner had quite a bit to reveal about it. The poster was on the walls of movie theaters all over the world and everybody just assumed it was Costner and Whitney Houston. But that sadly is not the case. Costner had this to say about the poster.

"That wasn't even Whitney actually. She had gone home and that was her double, and her head was buried into my shoulder, which was appropriate anyway. She was frightened."

For Kevin Costner, it didn't matter that it wasn't Whitney Houston on The Bodyguard poster. He felt that it had the right spark to perfectly represent the movie. However, the studio wasn't immediately sold by Costner's vision and did some tampering of their own before ultimately deciding to go with what the actor initially had in mind. Costner explains.

"I picked that picture out because my friend Ben Glass took it... I sent it to Warner Bros., and I go, 'There's the poster.' Because it was so evocative. It wasn't special photography; it wasn't anything. They didn't like it at first because you couldn't see Whitney's face. And so they sent me like five mockups where they put her head (on it) where she's looking (out). I said 'Guys, I think we had it the first time.' That it was really, and that ended up being the poster."

Who would've thought Kevin Costner had that much to do with The Bodyguard poster? The actor is known for throwing himself into his work, but the poster design is a bit surprising. He and Whitney Houston had great chemistry on the screen and the two remained friends until Houston's untimely death in 2012. When looking back at their onscreen chemistry, Costner attributes it to screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan. He had this to say.

"(It was a) very funny, acidic kind of relationship that was unique. His own rhythm of language that I knew would create (sparks). It just caught (Whitney) at a really high moment or actually created a high moment for her. The words provide the chemistry in a way."

At the time of The Bodyguard's release, many assumed Whitney Houston wrote the smash hit single "I Will Always Love You," but it was actually written by country star Dolly Parton. The soundtrack has sold over 45 million copies and is still the second highest selling soundtrack of all time, just behind Saturday Night Fever. Houston served as a producer on the project and the combination of the hit movie and number one soundtrack took her career to a whole new level. The interview with Kevin Costner was originally conducted by Entertainment Weekly.

The Bodyguard poster