The director who hated Kevin Costner for years: “We had a falling out”
The career of Kevin Costner has had more ups and downs than a yo-yo convention.
From his Oscar-winning glory days to making some of the most critically damned films of his era as both an actor and director, there’s no telling what he’s going to come out with next. You might get a Yellowstone. You might get The Postman. Nobody knows for sure. Regardless of the quality of his output, his career would be nothing without the influence of another Kevin.
Kevin Reynolds is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and writer who has a long history with his namesake. Reynolds’ first feature film was Fandango, a road comedy about a group of students embarking on one last vacation before graduation. It’s a certified cult classic these days, with a number of famous fans. It was also the first film to feature Costner in a starring role. This began a long and fruitful relationship between the Kevins, who would make two more movies together. Unfortunately, one of them was Waterworld.
The infamous water-based disaster is widely regarded as one of the most chaotic productions in film history. It wasn’t just the polar icecaps that fell apart, as Costner and Reynolds’ relationship also couldn’t stand the heat. Speaking with The Sunday Times, the director was asked about what happened on the set of Waterworld and why he and Costner didn’t work together for years after it wrapped.
“He asserted himself,” he revealed. “We had discussions, then arguments, and then a falling out. It’s not something I want to go into in detail. But it took years for us to get over it. I think Kevin’s more comfortable in his skin now.”
It’s not hard to see why Costner’s ego would have been running a little bit wild on set. This was him very much at the peak of his powers, coming off the back of several big hits, including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which Reynolds also directed. He was also a producer on the film, so he had a financial interest in seeing it succeed. Both he and Reynolds were under massive pressure to make it work and make a return on the record-breaking budget they had been assigned. Filming on open water proved to be a nightmare – just as Steven Spielberg warned it would be – and temperatures flared.
“It was difficult, no doubt about it,” Reynolds continued. “We had some serious arguments. There was so much pressure on the film itself because, at the time, it was the most expensive ever made. The press were after us from early on, willing us to fail.”
Eventually, the Kevins were able to patch things up. Though they haven’t worked on a movie together since Waterworld, Reynolds did direct Costner in Hatfields & McCoys, a miniseries and one of the many times you’ll see Costner wearing a cowboy hat.
The director was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the show, while the performer went one better and scooped ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie’. Everything worked out just fine in the end.
