When Whitney Houston died in 2012, fans of the 1995 film Waiting to Exhale thought its sequel was officially kaput.
But during an interview with Hollywood Today Live, Loretta Devine, who played one of the four lead characters in the iconic romantic drama, alongside Houston, Angela Bassett and Lela Rochon, suggested that folks might still be working on it.
“They’re still writing on it, for all we know,” Devine said. “Everything happened so quick because Gregory [Hines] passed and then Whitney passed, and it’s like, you can’t start a movie with two funerals.
“They were, like, the key characters, and so everything just sort of got scattered after that, but I think Terry McMillan is still trying to make it happen,” she explained, referring to the book’s author, who also helped produce the first movie.
Devine said that the remaining cast members would definitely jump at the chance to revive the beloved characters. In fact, when she last spoke to Houston, Houston was down to do it, too.
“Oh God, everyone would be on board. Whitney was even like, the last time I talked to her, ‘Oh God, I can’t wait. I’m going to get myself together to do this,’ and it just didn’t happen,” Devine said.
The actress is optimistic that they’d be able to find a suitable person to replace Houston and play her character: “Oh, they have so much new young, great talent, so it would be limitless girls that could do it.”
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.