Kevin Costner shares that he never quit on passion project Horizon: An American Saga because he doesn't 'really fall out of love'
- The 69-year-old Oscar-winning actor and Yellowstone star appeared on Tuesday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
- Costner and ex-wife Christine Baumgartner finalized their divorce in February after she filed for divorce in May 2023
- Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 will hit theaters on June 28 and the second installment Chapter 2 will go to theaters on August 16
Kevin Costner shared that he never gave up on his passion project Horizon: An American Saga for more than 36 years because he does not fall out of love.
The 69-year-old Oscar-winning actor and Yellowstone star appeared on Tuesday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and said he believed in his movie project so much that he even sold what he could to pay for it.
'I made it for people,' Costner said. 'I didn't make some Valentine's for my Mom to put on the refrigerator. I thought this was right. Things in their own time. I just didn't know it would take a generation to do this. But I don't really fall out of love. It was 1988, but I don't fall out of love with the things I think are good. I feel like I have this relationship with the audience and I was going to get this movie out.
'I thought sometimes we want to disappear when we go to a theater. We want to take a ride and that's what happens with Horizon. When I really couldn't get it made, I decided to take some of the things that I owned and I would go ahead and pay for it,' he added.
Kevin Costner shared that he never gave up on his passion project Horizon: An American Saga for more than 36 years because he does not fall out of love
Costner was on the show to promote his new movie Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 that he not only stars in, but also wrote, produced and directed. Costner's $100 million passion project movie has been described as centering on the settlement of the West over a 15-year period starting around the time of the American Civil War.
Chapter 1 will hit theaters on June 28 and the second installment Chapter 2 will go to theaters on August 16.
'You paid for it yourself,' Jimmy, 49, said. 'It got an 11-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival.'
'Yeah and they didn't give me a buck,' Costner said. 'I could have used a lot of money.'
Jimmy asked him why he got so emotional during the ovation and Costner said he didn't expect it.
'At a certain moment when they were clapping so much, I just found myself, and they had a camera very close to me, too close,' Costner said. 'I shut out the noise for a second, literally, I could see people's mouths moving and I could feel them clapping. But I walked my life backwards. I thought about the beginning and it was just dead silent even though it was happening and I really kind of followed the breadcrumbs of how I maybe got to where I got to. My kids were on the left, my actress was on the right and finally, I felt the sound come back and I said to the guys, I said, ''Look have them stop and I'll say something''.'
'Good for you,' Jimmy said.
Jimmy pointed out that Horizon: An American Saga was a four-part film series.
'I made it for people,' Costner said. 'I didn't make some Valentine's for my Mom to put on the refrigerator. I thought this was right. Things in their own time. I just didn't know it would take a generation to do this. But I don't really fall out of love. It was 1988, but I don't fall out of love with the things I think are good. I feel like I have this relationship with the audience and I was going to get this movie out
'You paid for it yourself,' Jimmy, 49, said. 'It got an 11-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival
'I wanted to give you a complete meal,' Costner said.
Costner said he was currently working on the third installment of the movie.
'I hope you enjoy it,' Costner said.
Jimmy asked if was always fascinated by Westerns.
'I think a lot about the drama,' Costner said. 'If you think about it, there's people when they made their way across the Atlantic to this country, when there was nothing here, there was a promise. The promise was if you could get here, if you were strong enough, if you were mean enough, if you were tough enough, you could hold on to what you had. And that promise kept coming. People just kept coming, millions, and unfortunately as they began to move across this country, across the Mississippi there was a whole group of people that had been here for 15,000 years. And there was this cataclysmic clash.'
Costner said that there were winners and losers in that clash.
'I feel like you can walk yourself back and try to figure out who you are in this story,' Costner said.
Costner said he decided to play a man who couldn't read or write.
'That sounded like me,' Costner said.
Costner said his son Hayes, 15, was in the movie with him. He also said the movie was also very strong on women.
Costner said his son Hayes, 15, was in the movie with him, shown together in May at the Cannes Film Festival in France
'When I started to redo this movie, I was shocked that every scene revolved around women,' he said.
Jimmy then played a clip from the movie where Costner punched a man who challenged him and the man just dropped to the ground from the punch.
Costner told Jimmy about his new dog named Bob. Jimmy showed a picture of the dog sleeping on the open door of the dishwasher.
'He kind of waits for me to do the dishes,' Costner said. 'That's a pretty good dog, right? I do all the work, he does everything else.'
'I had no idea he was there, actually,' Costner said. 'I was doing the dishes, which you have to do as a single dad. I was doing the dishes and like anything I thought where is he? He's too quiet. He's chewing on something. I went to go and I ran right into that thing. I saw that he was sleeping and I did like everything Americans do these days. You know, even if somebody passes out. I took his picture.'
Costner and ex-wife Christine Baumgartner finalized their divorce in February after she filed for divorce in May 2023. The couple had been married since 2004.
The actor in May brought five of his seven children to the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Horizon: Lily, 37, Grace, 13, Cayden, 17, Hayes and Annie, 40.
'He kind of waits for me to do the dishes,' Costner said of his new dog Bob. 'That's a pretty good dog, right? I do all the work, he does everything else'
The actor in May brought five of his seven children to the Cannes Film Festival premiere of Horizon: Lily, 37, Grace, 13, Cayden, 17, Hayes and Annie, 40
Costner and ex-wife Christine Baumgartner, shown in May 2019 in Los Angeles, finalized their divorce in February
Costner was joined by daughters Annie and Lily whom he shares with ex-wife Cindy Silva. Costner's son Joe, 36 — also from his first marriage to Silva — was not present.
His youngest kids, Cayden, Hayes and Grace, were also there and their mother is ex-wife Christine.
Kevin and Bridget Rooney's son, Liam, 26, was also absent from the red carpet event.
The Field Of Dreams star mortgaged his Santa Barbara estate in order to help finance the $100M passion project and also said he has put $38M of his own money into the films.
