Kevin Costner had a frank and candid discussion about the stories that have been shared regarding his Yellowstone exit, setting the record straight
Kevin Costner is setting the record straight on the many stories about his Yellowstone departure, and how the filming of his own movie, Horizon, was never a problem. For months, the subject of Costner’s exit from Taylor Sheridan’s ever-expanding Paramount series has been littered with half-tales, soundbites, and a lot of filler. After speaking previously about his willingness to work with Sheridan again in the future, the Oscar-winning director has now laid out his side of why his Yellowstone role became frustrating.
Costner is bringing Horizon: An American Saga to the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, one of the few times he has made an appearance at the prestigious event. After pumping almost $100 million of his own money into the project – so far – Costner is fully invested in the multipart movie event that will kick off his summer. However, as he explained, filming the movie never took president over Yellowstone, and it was constant changes to Sheridan’s series that caused the problem. He told Deadline:
“Well, I haven’t felt good about it the last year, what with the way they’ve talked about it. It wasn’t truthful. So now I’m talking about a little bit about what the real truth of it was. I made a contract for seasons five, six and seven. In February, after a two- or three-month negotiation, they made another contract. They wanted to redo that one, and instead of seasons six and seven, it was 5A and 5B, and maybe we’ll do six. They weren’t able to make those. Horizon was set in the middle, but Yellowstone was first position. I fit [Horizon] into the gaps. They just kept moving their gaps.”
Kevin Costner Has a Candid View on ‘Bulls*it’ Stories About Yellowstone
During the same interview, Costner shared at length his view on many of the “lies” that have been told about his unwillingness to work on the series, as well as laying out in no uncertain terms that one of the biggest issues with Yellowstone’s upcoming episodes is that there was no script ready for what has become known as “5B.” When it was put to Costner that his work on Horizon had led to his time working on Yellowstone not tying up with other actors’ availability, he countered:
“That’s not true. There were blocks of time that we didn’t get 10 episodes done. Basically, we were starting in April and May, and we’d usually go through August. We’d do 10. We didn’t even get 10 done during that time. I only worked 43 days. So that’s bullsh*t. That’s a lie. That’s not correct. They sent me away for seven days to go to London, to go to England during Covid, to do [promotion]. They made the contract and they picked the days.”
I didn’t shoot 5B. There was no script. And then things imploded.
Costner continued to explain how there has been a very one-sided view of what happened to bring Yellowstone to a halt, with much of the blame being laid on his doorstep. He said:
“You’ve been reading one version [of this behind-the-scenes drama] for a year and a half. I left my movie to be on time for them for 5B. I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me. It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B. They needed four more days just to complete the first eight episodes. So, what you read in the end was that I said, “Well, look, I’m doing my movie. If you want me to work a week because you want to kill me or whatever else, I can give you a week.” I really didn’t have that week to give them, but I said, I’ll do that. And then they [spun that] into, I only wanted to work a week.”
I’ve never missed a day of work. I’ve never left before fulfilling my contractual obligations.
Costner certainly paints a different picture to that which has been dominating headlines for more than a year, but despite all that, he is still committed to returning to Yellowstone if the scripts arrive and his character is needed. However, he also noted that the way Sheridan and others have allowed stories of his fault to escalate is something that doesn’t sit easy with him.
“I’m very open to coming back. If they’ve got so many other things going on, maybe this circles back and it’s a really cool two seasons. Or end it, if the writing’s there and I’m happy with it. I’m open to that. But I took a beating over these guys not speaking up for me and allowing crazy stories to come out.”
I’m not happy about that. But if the writing is there, I will be there too. I didn’t do Horizon to compete with Yellowstone. This is something I’ve had a long time.
.
