Angela Bassett Says “Waiting to Exhale” Sequel Is ‘Impossible’
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Photo by Valerie Macon/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Angela Bassett, one of the stars of the 1995 hit film Waiting to Exhale, said a sequel likely won’t happen after the death of co-star Whitney Houston.
“I think it made it impossible afterwards. It already suffered the loss of Gregory Hines, another beloved character,” the actress told ABC News.
Hines portrayed the neighbor and eventual husband of Loretta Devine’s Gloria.
“And then Whitney? …I think it was a blow that made it impossible to figure out how to do that,” Bassett continues. “Do you recast and act like nothing’s happened? It was just too difficult I think.”
Fox 2000 Pictures President Elizabeth Gabler initially told New York magazine in 2012 that they’d continue with their planned sequel despite Houston’s death, saying she didn’t think Houston “would want it” if the sequel was cancelled. Gabler added, “It’s almost in her honor that we think to soldier on.”
Waiting to Exhale, directed by Forest Whitaker and also starring Lela Rochon, centered on four friends living and loving in Phoenix, Arizona. Like the original, the sequel would have been based on a Terry McMillan book — in this case, Getting to Happy.
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