What to Know
We’ve all heard stories and rumors about actors who are difficult to work with and perhaps a bit full of themselves. Apparently, when Clint Eastwood found working with Kevin Costner to be a bit of a challenge, he had an interesting, non-confrontational way of trying to humble him. And it appeared to work.
Clint’s son Scott Eastwood, who is also an actor, recounted what happend during a recent appearance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.
Kevin was maybe a bit cocky at the time due to his “rise to fame.”
It was when the two men were both working on A Perfect World, which came out in 1993. Based on how Kevin was behaving on set, it seems like his fame was getting to his head at that point. According to Scott, Kevin “wouldn’t come out of his trailer” and was making things more difficult for everyone.
Instead of getting visibly angry, telling him to get out of his trailer, or even just letting his questionable behavior slide, Clint took a different approach: he reportedly decided that Kevin should just go home.
Scott said other people on set were confused by this.
After all, Kevin was supposed to be in the scene they were filming; how could he just go home? And yet, Clint seemed to make it happen.
“I heard a legendary story and I’m sort of going to paraphrase it,” Scott said on the podcast. “And I’ll probably tell it a little wrong. But Kevin Costner, sort of going through maybe, you know, the Kevin Costner rise to fame and maybe got a big ego, you know, blah blah blah, but they were doing A Perfect World and apparently Kevin wouldn’t come out of his trailer for some reason.”
Clint reportedly decided that they could continue without Kevin. “So he just said, ‘Well, send him home then,'” Scott explained. “And everyone said, ‘What do you mean? He’s in the scene.'”
Clint didn’t seem too worried about that. He just said, “Send him home.”
Kevin was reportedly taken aback as well.
It’s maybe not what you expect to happen when you’re feeling really confident and important.
“I guess they just went to Kevin, and said, ‘Hey, you’re going to go home for the day,'” Scott said. “…He said, ‘What do you mean? I’m in the scene?’ (The crew told him,) ‘Well, I guess you’re not anymore.” Oof.
Based on what happened the next day, it seems like suddenly getting sent home got to Kevin. Scott believes that Kevin returned to set the next day acting completely different. “And so, you know, that’s the pecking order,” he said. “I think the next day he was on set ready to go.”
Scott also reflected on his father’s perspective and what he’s learned from him. He said his dad “doesn’t do trailers and things,” and there’s a reason for that.
“He’s like, ‘Just be on set. Stay on,'” Scott said. “He always told me too as a kid, ‘You want to learn how to make movies? You want to learn how to do this? You stay here with everybody else and you make the d— movie.'”
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