Thirty years after the classic film “Waiting To Exhale,” starring Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine, Whitney Houston, and Angela Bassett, first lit up screens, the film’s power is not only sweet nostalgia, but also proof positive that honest stories about Black women still hit.

In a new interview with Gayle King, stars Rochon, Devine, and Bassett (RIP Whitney) — who play the tight-knit quartet the movie centered on — reconnected over why the film endures. 

“It’s a movie about love and love of friendship. Your girls will lift you,” Rochon said. The ladies are not surprised “Waiting To Exhale” still stands 30 years later. Bassett said, “When you bring authenticity, it resonates, it travels, it lives, it breathes, it’s tangible.”

Devine added, “For me, there were all these roles for Black women, where our son was in prison and we had to cry over something horrible. The world knew so little about Black women, successful Black women, beautiful Black women, so that was one of the things I thought it brought to the world.”

Bassett said she knew what they had was special. “Because it was our faces, our brown, brilliant, beautiful faces across the screen together. It broke through, it burst through. There was a very low ceiling; we burst through that,” she said.

Rochon remembers the cultural momentum and Houston’s pivotal role. She said, “I knew it was special because it was just so unique! She [Houston] couldn't make a flop.”

Devine called Houston’s presence joyful, and said, “She loved doing it. We had so much fun. She would laugh easy. She was always ready to laugh.” 

The actresses also credit director Forest Whitaker for creating a space where they could be themselves on set. “Forest was just so—he just enabled us to be us,” Bassett said. “He would look at us with such love and appreciation.”

Devine recalled Whitaker’s quiet nature and how they’d shush the room to hear him speak. She said, “He would speak so softly. Remember he was never loud.”

“Did he say action?” Bassett quipped and giggled. Rochon admitted that Whitaker yelled at her once but Devine said it was because they were “so bad!”

She said, “We were so bad! They put us out. Remember, at first when the movie first started, we were allowed to go see the dailies. But they put us out of the dailies because we were laughing at Whitney, she had some white shoes on. Did they put it in the movie? She came down the stairs in them big ol’ buck shoes! I think Lela cracked up.”

The cast of ladies laughed at their on-set memories alongside  Houston. Rochon said Houston would ride hard for them. During their press run, she said many press outlets only wanted to speak with Houston and Basset and Houston wasn’t having that. Rochon recalled, “She said ‘no, we go as a group or we don’t go at all.’ That was powerful to me. She stood up for us.”

Bassett said that if Houston were still with us, she’d think this celebration of 30 years of “Waiting to Exhale” was a seminal moment. Bassett said, “When I met her, I just said, ‘Your voice, it’s as if God just put his hand there and all this glory comes out.’ She looked at me and said, ‘I feel the same way about your acting.’”