The actor who refused to work with Kevin Costner: “I don’t need to be a piece of furniture”
It’s a dilemma that has faced many actors, who have to be careful not to get swept up in the fold of working with someone purely because of their status, which is whether to take up an offer for a big film role, because they have to consider if the part is actually right.
It shows a sign of maturity to be able to turn down a part in a movie that you just know is going to be big, because at the end of the day, if the role doesn’t serve your needs as an actor, then what’s the point, and this is the attitude that saw actor Paul Walter Hauser, the star of Clint Eastwood’s 2019 film Richard Jewell, turn down working with some big names, including Kevin Costner.
Hauser, who can also be found inside the ring when he’s not onscreen, having begun his professional wrestling career in 2023, has appeared in various TV shows and movies, but the last few years have really seen his acting career take off, wherein 2025 alone, he appeared in various high-profile films, including The Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Naked Gun, and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.
Evidently, he isn’t struggling to land good parts, and he takes his career seriously, but because he has willingly turned down the likes of Costner, knowing that having a small and meaningless part in a good film isn’t always worth the time, he admits that he still feels like a bit of an outsider in Hollywood. Sure, a part like that might look good on paper, but if it’s not challenging or fulfilling, then maybe it’s best to give it a miss.
He spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about turning down such opportunities, explaining, “There’s so much I haven’t done that I want to do desperately. Kevin Costner offered me a part in Horizon, but it was one line of dialogue and the character had nothing to them. I don’t need to be a piece of furniture in anybody’s movie. I love Kevin Costner, and I want to work with him, and it’d be an honour, but I also want to do something good.”
Costner’s Horizon turned out to be a bit of a disaster, with its disappointing box-office performance leading to a delay in the release of its sequel, one of three additional films planned as part of his ‘American Saga’, so it doesn’t sound like Hauser has missed out on much.
Meanwhile, the actor admitted to turning down another filmmaker, albeit one much more celebrated, noting, “The same thing with Luca Guadagnino, offered me to play the tennis judge during the big matches in Challengers. I could tell it was going to be something, and I love Luca, and he’s been nothing but sweet to me, but also I feel way too competitive and way too hungry to eat garnish and pretend it’s a meal.”
You have to give him credit for thinking so consciously about his acting choices, although he admits that he might one day come to regret these decisions.
“I would rather hold out for the right thing. On the day, I’m just going to be all hungry, and then I’m going to look stupid, and then I’m going to feel awkward. In Hollywood, I don’t feel like I fit in at all”, but with the positive direction his career is currently going in, I don’t think he’ll have to worry about his meals.
