Kevin Costner Is Not OK

The Hollywood Reporter published a sprawling profile on Kevin Costner’s ongoing struggles yesterday. The piece by Peter Kiefer opens with a previously unreported altercation on the set of Yellowstone between Costner and co-star Wes Bentley. During a tense scene, Costner allegedly tried to get Bentley to ignore the script and follow his direction instead. Bentley refused.

Bentley refused. He told Costner that he had signed up for a Taylor Sheridan show, not a Kevin Costner production.

“Kevin didn’t like that, and he lunged at him,” says a source who was present. “No fists were thrown, but they were in each other’s faces, pushing and shoving and just getting hot until they had to be separated.” [Co-star Kelly] Reilly, according to one witness, was in tears. Production briefly shut down.

That story encapsulates Costner’s recent career: he insists on doing things his own way, no matter how ill-advised. It’s what cost him his lucrative role on one of TV’s biggest hits, Yellowstone, and led to the debacle that was Horizon.

According to the profile, no one wanted Horizon. Costner wrote a 140-page script for the first film, and everyone told him it was too long and unwieldy. So, naturally, he decided to write three sequels. He was determined to make all four films. The first opened to just $11 million and limped to a $38 million total on a $100 million budget. The second installment—originally set for release a few months later—has been shelved indefinitely.

But Costner isn’t backing down. He’s still trying to finance the remaining two films (despite the first flopping and the second collecting dust), touting that Horizon was briefly the top film on HBO Max as a selling point. He even traveled to Saudi Arabia to seek funding, but even the Saudis — who probably paid Jimmy Carr hundreds of thousands for one set, so not exactly known for their cautious investments — reportedly passed.

At this point, Costner’s career looks bleak. His wife divorced him (and remarried Costner’s longtime friend), he’s clinging to a passion project no one wants, delivering paid keynote speeches at bakery and veterinarian conventions, and making gossip headlines simply for being spotted at the same Aspen restaurant as Jennifer Lopez. The man who once ruled Hollywood now seems like he’s chasing ghosts and completely losing the plot.

Source: THR