03-03-2025
Angela Bassett Reveals One Iconic Scene From "Waiting To Exhale" Was Improvised
Waiting to Exhale will forever be one of the most emotional and empowering films of the '90s.
20th Century Fox
Directed by Forest Whitaker, the 1995 film picked up four NAACP Image Awards, with the Babyface-produced original soundtrack going 7x platinum album and the lead song ("Exhale (Shoop Shoop)") winning a Grammy for Best R&B song.
Speaking to BuzzFeed, Angela shared that acting alongside the late Whitney Houston was one of the best parts of the film. In fact, the cast – Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine, Angela, and Whitney – had so much natural chemistry that one of the film's most loved scenes wasn't part of the script at all.
20th Century Fox
'The four of us were in the car scene near the end before we wind up at the bonfire for New Year's Eve. I was driving and we actually had the radio on and a song came on and Whitney's like, 'What is this song? What is this song?' So she's trying to get the song and we're singing it.' she recalls.
20th Century Fox
The song they were singing along to is Roberta Flack's version of "It Might Be You," which she released in 1994. If you watch the scene carefully, you can hear the stars discussing the cover, referencing the fact that the original version was performed in the 1982 film, Tootsie.
'And then afterwards, I guess they enjoyed it so much, they actually then went forward to secure the rights to use what we had filmed – just waiting and playing around – to include it in the movie.'
This wasn't the film's only unscripted moment: a lot of the lines of Bernadine's car-burning monologue were improvised by Angela Bassett in the heat of the moment.
20th Century Fox
In an interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Angela explained, "During that scene I did feel myself, at one point, go into a trance, and then we said, 'Cut.'"
If you were looking for a sign to give Waiting to Exhale a rewatch: this is it.
It's on Disney+ – enjoy!
