Kevin Costner names the directors who inspired him most: “I have a world view”
Kevin Costner is one of those rare figures in Hollywood who has had equal success as both an actor and a director. It’s perhaps his knowledge of acting that has helped him to excel as a director – and his familiarity with actors that has allowed him to be a strong director.
He made his first on-screen appearance in 1981’s indie film Sizzle Beach, USA. He began picking up roles fast, and in 1985, he appeared in Silverado, a western. It’s a genre that Costner has constantly come back to, and in 1990, he made his directorial debut with Dancing with Wolves, an epic western that won Costner both ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Picture’.
Most first-time directors could only dream of winning an Oscar for their first movie, as well as taking home ‘Best Picture’. Evidently, Costner deeply impressed critics, and since then, he has directed more movies, like Open Range, a revisionist western, and the three-part epic western film series Horizon: An American Saga.
Naturally, Costner has been inspired by directors who specialise in the western genre, particularly John Ford. The director is one of the most important figures in the genre, perhaps the most influential creator of American western movies. He often worked with John Wayne, helming films like Stagecoach, Fort Apache, and The Searchers.
Speaking to The Talks, he explained: “I guess I have always had a level of understanding of the genre, I had a high level of interest in it and how to portray it. All the details and the little things in a Western, they’re very American. And no one’s ever confused me with anything other than being an American — so I get it. I have a world view of things, but I am American.”
He stated that Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Searchers have inspired him the most. The former came later into Ford’s career and starred Wayne and James Stewart, while The Searchers came a few years earlier in 1956, with Wayne playing a man who goes out looking for his missing niece, portrayed by Natalie Wood. It is considered one of the greatest westerns of all time, making it unsurprising that Coster finds it so influential.
Additionally, Costner also stated his love for George Stevens, stating, “I was really influenced by him as a filmmaker.” Stevens made many significant movies, like A Place in the Sun, Gunga Din, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Greatest Story Ever Told. He was able to tell many epic stories, and it’s this expansive quality that Costner really admires.
Then there’s Jim Harrison, “who wrote these great short stories like Legends of the Fall, and Revenge.” Managing to pack a punch into a short space, several of his stories, like the aforementioned Legends of the Fall – a western – were adapted for the big screen successfully.
Finally, Costner also highlighted Lawrence Kasdan, claiming that his “work helped me get started in my career. I did it for him. So if ever you think I was copying him, I wasn’t — I was celebrating him!” Costner has worked with the filmmaker several times, most notably in his breakthrough Silverado. Kasdan also cast Cosner in an incredibly successful film, The Bodyguard, with Whitney Houston. Clearly, Costner learned a lot from working with him.
