The One Movie Kevin Costner Will Always Regret

Costner was always honest about his green character when he first traveled to Hollywood in the early ’80s from his hometown of Lynwood, California. He was inspired by a chance meeting with Richard Burton on a plane in 1978 and ended up driving his truck to Los Angeles without really knowing how to make it in the movie business. He said The Independent“No one gave me a chance. I certainly didn’t know how it worked.

Costner admitted to parking near a phone booth on La Brea or Sunset Boulevard and sleeping in his truck overnight because he just wanted to stay near the business. “I knew I had to come to Hollywood every day – I just didn’t know where to go,” he laughed.

Through sheer force of will and focus on her goal, the young star quickly found her way into small roles in films like Sizzlethe Beach United States And Night shift before the 1985 Western Silverado helped him escape. By the time he found himself starring as legendary federal agent Eliot Ness in Brian De Palma’s Prohibition epic. The UntouchablesHowever, Costner had only starred in a handful of smaller films. Suddenly, he found himself leading a big-budget crime film opposite acting legends like Sean Connery and Robert De Niro – but he still didn’t have much faith in his acting bona fides. He needed help if he wanted to keep his head above water.

Luckily, in 2024, Costner revealed that Connery – who starred in the film as Ness’ tough-guy Chicago police mentor James Malone – had taken him under his wing. He said GQ: “He always called me ‘Mr. Ness’. “Mr. Ness, can I speak to you?” » He smiled, “We became friends.” »

Costner recalled that Connery was particularly helpful when he struggled with some of his scenes opposite De Niro, who was given permission to chew the scenery with reckless abandon as the terrifying gangster Al Capone.

“My character was very direct and Robert was able to jump off the page,” Costner explained in 2017. “I was trying to survive with my straight arrow language against someone who was throwing a level of street language at me that he There was a certain level of improvisation. So it was difficult for me to survive in some of those scenes, and Sean talked to me a little bit about that.

In his own head, Costner was sure that this inexperience with high-level Hollywood acting would cause someone like Connery to think less of him. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case at all, and Costner explained, “He was nice to me.” And I learned a lot because my eyes were open.

Ultimately, Costner reflected, “I wish I was a better actor when I did it.” The Untouchablesbut I was where I was.

Ultimately, Costner may have had a false sense of the limitations of his acting because his performance in The Untouchables is still cited as one of his best. For his part, Connery always maintained that the mentor-mentee relationship that defined their characters was reflected in the actor’s real-life relationship.

It was evident how much their time together meant to Costner when he paid tribute after Connery’s death in 2020, saying: “He was the biggest star I ever worked with, and I will be forever grateful to to be linked to him on film.”

Related topics