“Terrified” Idina Menzel “Said No to Myself 12 Times” Before Agreeing to Star in “Beaches” Remake

Getty Images via ABCStarring in the remake of a beloved movie is hard enough, but what if you also had to record your own version of that movie’s #1 Grammy-winning hit?

No wonder Idina Menzel says she was “terrified” to star in Lifetime’s reboot of the 1988 Bette Midler/Barbara Hershey film Beaches, debuting this weekend.

“I was terrified to do it at first…I think it’s a beautiful, beautiful movie,” said Idina. “And both those women…especially Bette Midler, for me, was an idol my whole life.”

“It’s a daunting task,” she continued. “But as a performer, you look at a role, and you see where you can learn and…exercise your talents and your craft…and so, after saying no to myself 12 times, I finally gave into it!”

But what about remaking “Wind Beneath My Wings,” the smash Bette Midler song from the original film? How many takes did Idina do of her version until she felt she’d done the original justice? “Well, I’m a perfectionist, so I did it a bunch of times…I tried all the different things,” she told reporters.

“And then, like, five times in, I felt like I was hitting things I really wanted to hit.” It helped, Idina says, that she’d sung the song countless times while working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer.

“Every 13-year-old boy danced with his mother to ‘Wind Beneath My Wings,’ she laughs. “I’m well rehearsed. It was just was trying to find my own spin on it…my amazing producer found a different underpinning for it, so that it could sort of bring out new, modern sounds, and it was actually enjoyable.”

Idina plays Midler’s role of singer C.C. in the Beaches remake, while Nia Long takes on Hershey’s role as Hillary, an heiress and lawyer. It debuts Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET.


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