Princess Diana was nervous about kissing Kevin Costner in a possible sequel to The Bodyguard

Diana, Princess of Wales retrospective
Diana, Princess of Wales retrospective

Not long before her death, Princess Diana seriously considered starring in a major Hollywood movie - even though she was quite "nervous" about kissing would-be co-star Kevin Costner.

Following the success of 1992's "The Bodyguard," which starred Costner alongside Whitney Houston, "the studio liked the idea of doing a 'Bodyguard 2'" with Princess Di "in the same kind of capacity of Whitney," Costner told People, explaining that Diana agreed to writers drafting the script with her in mind.

"I just remember her being incredibly sweet on the phone, and she asked the question, she goes, 'Are we going to have, like, a kissing scene?'" Costner recalled. "She said it in a very respectful way. She was nervous because her life was very governed."

【ギャラリー】Princess Diana51

In response, Costner reassured the royal that the on-screen romance wouldn't be any reason for alarm: "I said, 'Yeah, there's going to be a little bit of that, but we can make that okay too.'"

Costner said he received a final draft of the script in August 1997, just one day before the Princess of Wales died in a car crash at age 36.

While there were a number of power players involved in the proposal, the idea never would have reached Princess Di without the help of Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York.

"I always respect Sarah because she's the one that set up the conversation between me and Diana," Costner said. "She was the one that set it up, and she never said, 'Well, what about me? I'm a princess too.' She was just so supportive."

Sarah and Diana were sisters-in-law until their respective 1996 divorces from their royal husbands.