‘Waiting to Exhale’ Cast Remember the Late Whitney Houston as They Reunite for 30th Anniversary

The cast of Waiting to Exhale still holds a lot of love for each other, 30 years later.

Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon sat down with Gayle King for CBS Mornings to reflect on making the film, its celebration of Black love and friendship and what it means to them after three decades.

The film follows a group of four friends — Vannah (Whitney Houston), Bernie (Bassett), Glo (Devine) and Robin (Rochon) — navigating finding and holding onto love as they turn to each other for support. The surviving cast members took a moment during the conversation to honor Houston, who died in 2012 at the age of 48.

Of the film’s milestone and its overall legacy, Rochon, 61, said, “I think she would be proud.”

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“I think it would have been one of the seminal experiences… She was so used to being solo, deer in the spotlight, in the hot glare, and to be able to share this moment with your girls, you know?” Bassett, 67, noted.

“She loved doing it. She had so much fun, and we had fun,” Devine, 76, added.

Rochon recalled how when it came time to promote the movie and certain outlets were only interested in speaking with Houston and Bassett, the late singer would refuse.

“Whitney said, ‘No. We go as a group or we don’t go at all,’ and that was powerful for me, that she stood up for us” she shared.

“My memory of her is that she would laugh easy,” Devine added, “She was already ready to laugh about everything.”

Bassett recalled the first time she met Houston, telling the singer, “Your voice is as if God put his hands there, and all this glory comes out.”

“And she looked at me and she said, ‘I feel the same way about your acting.’ It was like. ‘Ah, so, oh, oh, okay!’ ”

Devine agreed, adding, “She was a bit mesmerized when Angela was acting.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, the women recalled the feeling of the film’s chemistry during filming. Based on Terry McMillan’s novel by the same name, it was important to the group to get it right.

“I knew it was special because it’s our faces, our brown, beautiful, brilliant faces, on the screen, together. It broke through,” Bassett shared.

“It burst through because there were so many times we’d go into a room, and you would hear that stories about Black people didn’t travel. They didn’t translate or they wouldn’t travel to Europe. It would only… there was only a ceiling, a very low ceiling. [We] burst through that.”

“I knew it was special just because it was so unique, and I knew how excited everybody was about it,” Rochon added. “And I knew how, how lucky we were, and how special everything that Whitney had done up to that point. She couldn’t make a flop. So it was special in so many different ways.”

Of the movie’s lasting legacy, the women admitted they aren’t entirely surprised. That special feeling during filming has translated to countless viewers over these three decades.

“Because it makes… well, it makes black women feel good about themselves,” Devine noted. “But that movie? Says, ‘You can be and do just about anything you dream of.’ And so that’s why it’s such a good movie for all young women, because all women need to feel like that.”

Agreeing, Rochon adds, “I think it’s about love. And I think the movie is about the love of friendship, because at the end of the day, your girlfriends will always hold you up. And I think that we still carry that friendship in real life, which is beautiful, because every movie is not this way.”

Bassett noted, “It was done [with] authenticity of the voice — of Terry’s voice, of [director Forest Whitaker]’s vision for the project, but also it was our authenticity as actors, as creatives. We all brought that to bear. When you bring authenticity, it resonates. It travels, it lives, it breathes. It’s tangible, authenticity, integrity, across the board, and love.. and those things never get old.”

Waiting to Exhale is currently streaming on Hulu.