Why Kevin Costner Turned Down Chris Hemsworth For One Of His Movies

No one can stop Kevin Costner — not even, it seems, Thor himself. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Chris Hemsworth revealed that once upon a time, he came close to working with Costner, who was planning to direct an untitled project that the Marvel star really liked the sound of. That is, until he got bumped out of consideration for the lead role by Costner casting ... Costner. 

"There was a movie, a script that I'd read and loved and was like, 'I want to get that,' and then someone said, 'Kevin Costner has that [role],'" Hemsworth explained. It didn't sound like there were any hard feelings over the decision, but it remains a missed opportunity on Hemsworth's dream collaborator list. "I'd love [to have] him as a director. I was like ... [I spent] an hour the other day trying to convince him, and he was like, 'I'm doing it, kid.' Didn't work. I didn't get the part."

The role would have cast Hemsworth as a horse wrangler in what he detailed as a "small story about a man and a woman." The project appears to remain a bit further down the line for Costner, who has spent much of the last several years trying to make his four-part film series, "Horizon: An American Saga," of which only the first movie has been released. As for Costner's reason for claiming the part for himself in the unnamed project, well, he sees age as nothing but a number.

Following up on the recent revelation of the team-up that never came to be, Entertainment Tonight asked Kevin Costner directly about taking over the gig that Chris Hemsworth missed out on.

Assessing the role, Costner explained, "It's a love story, but as long as I'm still young enough to play it, I'll play it. Chris will have to wait his turn." Even so, the enthusiasm for the part expressed by the star who missed out on the role was appreciated, and Costner had nothing but good things to say about Hemsworth and his reputation in Hollywood.

"He's so handsome, and he's so good," the former "Yellowstone" star said of Hemsworth. "He's going to have to go find his [own] love story. [But] I'm glad he likes this one. If I reach a moment where I [don't] think I could do that, I would [reach out]. He's certainly one of our great leading men right now." Whenever this unnamed project enters production, it'll most likely be after Costner has fully released "Horizon: An American Saga" — if that even happens, considering that critics didn't hold back about the first film, which bombed at the box office.