The one movie Kevin Costner will always regret not making: “I wasn’t the right guy”
Even though he’s only directed five features in 35 years, and the fifth is still stuck in cinematic purgatory, there are apparently two absolutes required for Kevin Costner to helm a feature.
First of all, it needs to be a western of some description. Dances with Wolves, Open Range, and the first two chapters in the troubled Horizon saga all fit the bill, while The Postman ticks many of the same boxes, albeit with a post-apocalyptic slant. The second is that he needs to spend a shitload of his own money.
Costner has funnelled millions of his personal wealth into every picture he’s directed, and he doesn’t mind doing it when he’s a producer, either. Every notable auteur has a standard set of tricks and techniques that define their filmography, and for the most part, a single genre and splurging cash ain’t it.
That said, Costner did dream of venturing outside of his directorial wheelhouse, and cinema dodged a bullet that he didn’t get the opportunity. A project that originated with Martin Scorsese before being taken over by Steven Spielberg when they did the ol’ switcheroo with Cape Fear, nobody can deny the Jaws and Jurassic Park mastermind was the perfect filmmaker to tackle Schindler’s List.
It made perfect sense on paper, and it was even better in execution. An achingly emotional, poignant, and painful rumination on a rare ray of light that shone bright during one of history’s darkest moments, it’s one of Spielberg’s very best, one of the greatest movies in modern cinema, and an eight-time Academy Award winner.
In an alternate timeline, one which you should be glad you don’t live in, Schindler’s List was directed by Kevin Costner, who also played the lead role. “I went to Steven and he said, ‘No, I think I’m going to direct it,” the Waterworld frontman told Howard Stern. “And so I said, ‘OK’, because I would have directed it, and I said to my agent, ‘I’d love to direct this, and I’d love to be in this particular movie.'”
After failing to secure the director’s chair, Costner swallowed his pride and essentially foisted himself upon Spielberg to audition for the title character. “I said, ‘I’ll come screen test for you, Steven,'” he recalled. “I probably put him in an incredibly awkward spot, and he goes, ‘OK.'”
It wasn’t a conventional screen test, though, with Costner auditioning for Spielberg in his kitchen while wearing a bald cap, which is when he had a moment of realisation: “In the end, I wasn’t the right guy for him.” No shit. Instead, Liam Neeson delivered arguably the best performance of his career and deservedly made the shortlist for ‘Best Actor’ at the Oscars.
It’s impossible to imagine anyone other than Spielberg overseeing Schindler’s List, because the film meant so much to him on a personal and spiritual level. Even though he was one of Hollywood’s biggest names at the time, it could have been a disaster had it become another Costner ego trip.
