Academy Award winner Kevin Costner is still at the top of his game in Hollywood.
But that doesn’t mean the movie business is a cakewalk.
And Kevin Costner refused to cast an A-List actor in his new film for this jaw-dropping reason.
At 69 years old, Kevin Costner has done it all during his more than four decades in Hollywood.
He’s starred in timeless hits like Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, and JFK and even won an Academy Award for Best Director for the 1990 historical drama Dances with Wolves.
Costner has even spent the past few years conquering the world of television by playing, “John Dutton,” on the Taylor Sheridan-created smash hit Yellowstone.
That’s why he’s not ready to give up his status as a leading man in the movie business.
Kevin Costner rejects younger actor lead role
Costner decided to cast himself in the lead role for his latest film despite being nearly 70 and fresh off of a divorce.
Australian actor Chris Hemsworth, who is known for playing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, told Entertainment Tonight that he was turned down for the lead in Costner’s latest movie after pushing for the role.
“There was a movie, a script that I’d read and loved and was like, ‘I want to get that,’ and then someone said, ‘Kevin Costner has that [role],'” Hemsworth recalled.
“I’d love [Costner] as a director,” he added. “I was like, ‘G**d*** it!’ [I spent] an hour the other day trying to convince him, and he was like, ‘I’m doing it, kid.’ Didn’t work. I didn’t get the part.”
Hemsworth admitted that the part was a better fit for Costner than him.
“It’s better seen in his wheelhouse for sure, as far as the kind of Western environment,” Hemsworth said. “There’s horses involved, he’s a horse wrangler, and my wife [Elsa Pataky] read it and loves horses. We have 10 or 11 horses back home, and so she’s like, ‘You’ve got to do this.'”
Hemsworth never specified the movie, but the next film from Costner is the two-part western, Horizon: An American Saga, due out this summer.
Kevin Costner reveals why he kept the part
Costner was asked about Hemsworth’s remarks by Entertainment Tonight during his appearance at CinemaCon to promote Horizon.
“Chris – he’s starting something on me,” Costner joked. “It’s a love story. But as long as I’m still young enough to play it, I’ll play it.”
He pointed out that Hemsworth would get plenty of chances in the future because of his talent.
“Chris is gonna have to wait his turn. He’s so handsome and he’s so good,” Costner said. “He’s gonna have to go find his [own] love story. I’m glad he likes this one. If I reach a moment where I [don’t] think I could do that, I would [reach out]. He’s certainly one of our great leading men right now.”
Kevin Costner is still a leading man after more than 40 years in the movie business.
