Kevin Costner Was On Morphine While Filming This Oscar-Nominated Movie

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | July 2, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | July 2, 2024 |

Actors using illicit substances while filming a movie is nothing new. Judy Garland was forced to take pills while making The Wizard Of Oz to ensure she would stay on her feet (ya know, cause they were overworking her). Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo drank heavily while making Super Mario Bros. You can’t watch most movies made in the 1970s without getting a little cocaine residue on your eyeballs. Yes, actors have used drugs while making movies, but (usually) not because they had kidney stones.

Kevin Costner is currently making the rounds to promote his new Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga. This comes after the filmmaker’s very public splits from his wife, and the hit show, Yellowstone. He is putting a lot into this movie, and Glenn Beck loves it. Do with that what you will. It doesn’t seem like it would make Costner quit, anyway. The man won’t get beat down that easily, which explains why he filmed the last two weeks of Hidden Figures on an IV drip.

Costner recently sat down with PEOPLE as part of his press duties. While speaking with them, he reflected on his time filming Hidden Figures in 2016. Costner maintains a streak of sobriety while filming, but he hit his breaking point while making the movie. “I’ve never worked drunk on a set. I’ve never worked high on a set, but I was on morphine the last two weeks that I worked on [Hidden Figures],” Costner told PEOPLE.

The actor explained that he had to be medically assisted while filming, explaining that he, “worked 10 days under an IV drip. I don’t even know how. About three days of it I was normal and then something happened to me.” An aspect of the story that feels wild in a post-COVID world (and should have before), Costner says he never missed a shoot day despite being in pain. He says he “never missed a day of work,” but adds, “I sat in my trailer with a morphine drip in my arm.”

While Costner was experiencing great pain, he didn’t want that to be evident to his co-workers. He admits that he began rolling down his sleeves to hide the bruising from his IV. “Eventually, I had to,” he told the outlet. “I wanted to cry, but there was everybody watching, so I didn’t.” It’s commendable that Costner wouldn’t want others to know of his predicament. He took one for the team; he can have his Glenn Beck movie(s).