Waiting to Exhale 30th Anniversary

30 years ago, Waiting to Exhale has debut in theaters becoming the most highest grossing black film during the nineties era. The film adaptation centers on four black women living in the Phoenix metropolitan area and their relationships with men and one another. The film sparked acclaim and a cult following from fans of the film and the novel due to its powerful, relatable story of Black women's friendships and struggles, a star-studded cast with off-screen chemistry, an iconic, chart-topping soundtrack produced by Babyface, and director Forest Whitaker's vision, all culminating in a massive box office success that proved the commercial viability of films centered on diverse female experiences and paved the way for more inclusive storytelling in Hollywood.

The Novel Behind The Film

The film was based on a novel written by Terry McMillan. During the 90s era, McMillan was a published author, a professor, and a graduate at University of California, Berkeley. McMillan wanted to write a novel about African American womens lives on relationships, self-love, friendships, and female empowerment.

The novel centers on the lives of middle-class, professional Black women. The novel follows the lives of four women from Phoenix, Arizona: Savannah, Bernadine, Robin, and Gloria as they navigate their way through romantic, professional, and legal entanglements while supporting each other with a friendship that survives it all. Thematically, the novel explores the midlife experience of “waiting” for life to begin, betrayals and disappointments in relationships, and cultural expectations surrounding dating. The novel became McMillan's number one New York's Bestsellers List.

The Film

After the success of Terry's novel, the novel would be adapted to a film. The director of the iconic 1995 film Waiting to Exhale was the acclaimed actor turned filmmaker Forest Whitaker marking his directorial debut and bringing the popular novel by Terry McMillan to life with its all-star female cast. Parts of the film were shot at Monument Valley in Utah as well as Chandler, Fountain Hills, Phoenix and Paradise Valley in Arizona.

Terry, who wrote the novel, wrote the screenplay of the film. The film centers Savannah (played by Grammy Winner Whitney Houston) a successful television producer who gets an offer in Arizona and is in a relationship with Kenneth (played by Dennis Haysbert) hoping he would leave his wife for her, Bernadine (played by Angela Bassett), homemaker and married for 11 years, has just learned her husband wants a divorce in order to marry a white woman who works in his office. While Bernadine is not surprised by the divorce, both she and her husband, John (played by Michael Beach), have been unhappy for a long time—she is outraged that he would leave her for another woman, especially one who performs the same job Bernadine did when John first started the business. Robin (played by Lela Rochon) an insurance executive having a hard time looking for the right man and a longtime mistress of Russell (played by Leon). Gloria (played by Loretta Devine) a hairdresser who is raising her 16-year-old son, Tarik (played by Donald Faison),alone.

Fun Fact: Kenya Moore was supposed to play the role as Robin however Rochon nabbed the role but she did got a minor role in the film.

The film premiered on December 22, 1995. Waiting to Exhale was a financial success, opening at number one at the North American box office and grossing $14.1 million its first weekend of release. In total, the film grossed $67.05 million in North America, and $14.4 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $81.45 million. Its widest release was just over 1,400 theatres, and it was the 26th highest-grossing film of 1995. However, some critics were harsh to the film calling the film "useless, unattractive" and "melodramactic".

The Soundtrack

The original music score of the film was composed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The soundtrack album to the film features exclusively female African-American artists. The soundtrack includes the number-one hit songs "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", sung by the film's star Whitney Houston. The soundtrack included artists like Chaka Khan, Cece Winans, Mary J. Blidge, Brandy, Aretha Franklin, SWV, Patti LaBelle, Gladys Knight, and Toni Braxton.

The soundtrack has also made a hit and remained at number one on the US Billboard 200 album chart for five weeks and Top R&B Albums chart for ten weeks, going 7× platinum, on September 4, 1996. The album received a total of eleven Grammy nominations in 1997, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)". Three songs were nominated for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. It won the Grammy for Best R&B Song for "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", written by Babyface.

Whitney's Death

In 2010, McMillan released a sequel to Waiting to Exhale called Getting to Happy that revisits Savannah, Bernadine, Robin, and Gloria 15 years later. Savannah , Gloria now a widow and dealing with being alone again and Robin being a shopaholic and has a teenage daughter named Sparrow pays her no mind. In the spring of 2011 on an episode of The Talk, Angela Bassett confirmed that a sequel was in the planning stages, with all the female principals signed on to star, and Whitaker returning to direct but that was until on February 11, 2012, Houston passed away after an accidental drowning.

The cast of Waiting of Exhale (Loretta, Angela, and Lela) at the BET Awards in 2012 months after Houston's death honoring their co-star.

The Legacy of the Film

Years after the film, scenes from the film spawned memes, TikToks, Gifs making the film more iconic. The soundtrack would make the Billboard charts and listed at number 27 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest soundtracks of all time and concert tributes honoring the films soundtrack.

Five years after the film's release, Black Femininity TV took a tour of some of the film's location.

Waiting to Exhale played an instrumental part in promoting a more honest, reflective representation of contemporary black womanhood and played an instrumental role in creating a dialogue in R&B music that was relatable to black women. Her book discussed the everyday needs as well as the sexual desires and pleasures of women that had largely been missing to that point. Daphne A. Brooks argues in her piece "Its not right but its okay" that McMillan's work informed and influenced the woman-centered R&B movement that has become very popular today. In today's R&B, artists such as SZA, Summer Walker, Jazmine Sullivan, among many others, articulate the experiences of black women, a trend that was jumpstarted by the work of McMillan and the R&B artists who innovated the genre.

30 Years Now

30 years since the film, the trio of the cast of Waiting to Exhale joined CBS Mornings Gayle King celebrating the 30th anniversary of Waiting to Exhale reminiscing their time working with Whitney Houston, and how this iconic film changed film history.

The film is now streaming on streaming services and now streaming for free on Tubi.

Sources

YouTube

Wikipedia

https://www.supersummary.com/waiting-to-exhale/summary/

https://www.blackenterprise.com/terry-mcmillan-wants-original-waiting-to-exhale-cast-to-return-for-tv-adaptation/

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