The Cherished Childhood Memory That Helped Shape Kevin Costner's Career
Kevin Costner has a long list of career achievements under his belt, including both an Oscar and an Emmy. He rose to A-list status with the late-'80s one-two punch of "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams," and went on to star in such iconic fare as "Dances With Wolves" and "The Bodyguard." Now, he's had a career revival of sorts with the wildly popular series "Yellowstone," in which he stars as Montana rancher John Dutton.
The modern-day Western series has been a record-breaker for The Paramount Network, spawning the "1883" origin story on Paramount+ and a slew of other in-the-works prequels and sequels created by "Yellowstone" mastermind Taylor Sheridan.
Even a Hollywood icon like Costner still thinks about his humble roots and worries about where his career might be heading. It was a topic he touched on during a recent roundtable interview that included Looper at the U.K. launch of Paramount+ — on which "Yellowstone" and "1883" are now available.
Costner still thinks about his mom hanging his artwork on the fridge
When asked what kind of legacy he hopes "Yellowstone" leaves, Costner reflects on his childhood as a way to look into his future.
"When I was a kid, I wasn't a very good artist; I couldn't draw," he says. "The girl up on my left always could draw really well, and I'd look at it and go, 'Jesus, look what's she drawing, [and] look what I'm drawing,' but my mom would put it on the refrigerator. It didn't matter if it was good or bad, she made me feel special. As you get older, no one's going to put it on the refrigerator. It's up to me to try to get something to land in a way that gets over the bar of what I think is original and good."
It's a work ethic that has stayed with him throughout his career — one he believes has helped him find the kind of success he has achieved.
"It's easy to replicate something," he says. "In fact, it's actually a better bet in this world of entertainment to replicate something that's good. There's a big chance when you do something that's original, people won't follow it. In Hollywood, your stock can go down just because you're not following a trend — and it can change you. If you don't have a sense of your own direction, you will quickly start trying to follow everything that's successful. My ego wants to be successful, but there's a bigger part of me that, if I got caught trying to duplicate something and it wasn't any good, I'd hate myself."
Paramount+ is now available in the United Kingdom, where you can watch all available episodes of "Yellowstone" and "1883."