CANNES DISPATCH 14 …
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Kevin Costner believes in the magic of movies so much he’s willing to bet the farm on it. Literally. The actor-filmmaker sank millions of his own cash into funding his planned four-part Western epic, Horizon (part one of which premiered in Cannes this week) when he could find no studio interest and admits he gambled his own homesteads on making it.
‘I’ve had good luck in my life and I’ve acquired some land and some homes that are important to me and they’re valuable,’ he admitted, ‘but I don’t need four homes. And so I will risk those homes to make my movies. I wish I didn’t do it because I want to leave those homes to my children. But my children will have to live their own life and if I’ve not made a mistake, they will have these four homes. If I’ve made a mistake, I’ll say “you have to live your own life – I’ve lived mine and I’m really happy!”’
Costner was certainly happy after the reception his film received at the premiere, shedding tears of emotion as he saw his dream project finally reach an audience. ‘It was a remarkable moment for me,’ he said of the premiere and standing ovation. ‘I started to walk my life backwards, thinking how in the world did I get here?’
The road to Horizon has been long – Costner first dreamt up the saga in 1988 and the lead character of Hayes Ellison, who he plays in the movie and the name he gave his son he was so obsessed with the project. His now fifteen-year son makes his film debut in the movie in a full-circle moment for the filmmaker. ‘I had trouble making this movie, but the name Hayes was part of my journey. I couldn’t make it but I couldn’t fall out of love with it. So 15 years ago I named my son Hayes cos I couldn’t let go of it. And then all of a sudden I put him in the movie and he’d never acted before. I don’t automatically give parts to my children because I know how coveted this is and there’s young people who do anything to have a part on a movie. But I’m also a father and it was a part that wasn’t that long and I wanted him to be close to me. And I thought he was just beautiful in the movie. The movie at that moment is everything I want film to be about.’
Costner has long been associated with Westerns – and betting on them – having previously made Dances With Wolves in 1990, a film that Hollywood considered so unfashionable and a folly it was nicknamed ‘Kevin’s Gate’ after previous oater flop Heaven’s Gate. Back then Costner poured his own money into the film and was rewarded with epic box office and seven Oscars. He also championed Open Range in 2003. This time around he worked more nimbly to conserve cash (Dances lensed for 106 days, Horizon for just 52) and he recognises that history is repeating itself with his latest work.
‘I don’t know why it was so hard to get people to believe in the movie that I wanted to make. It’s a pattern for me: it’s happened with Dances With Wolves, Field Of Dream, Bull Durham, Open Range. It seems to be a pattern that some of the things that I like are harder to make. My problem is I don’t fall out of love with what I think is something good. Part of why I wanted to make 2, 3 and 4 was to make it for myself cos I know what it’s like to sit out there in the audience and the curtain open and something magic’s going to happen, a story’s going to transport us. The movies have always been a place for us to go and have a chance at magic. So I have made the second one and I’m trying to make the third one.I will have to figure out with my friends, with the things I own – how do I make three to bring us back [to Cannes], I would like to come back with the third movie.’
‘I wrote the best Western that I would write with Jon Baird. A Western that included women as being the biggest characters in the movie, it made sense to me. Movies have to have something in common with you or you lose track of what you’re watching in the dark. You go ‘who the fuck is this?’ It’s when we recognise ourselves that we create moments that we’ll never ever forgot.’
The women leading the charge to the frontier include First Nation wives, Chinese laundresses, wagon train ladies, wily seductresses and widowed mother, Frances Kittredge, played by Sienna Miller. For Miller, the idea of appearing in a Western was a long-held ambition, especially one helmed by Costner.
‘I grew up watching Westerns. I think my idea of cinema was a Western when I was a little girl, and then Dances With Wolves was a huge, huge part of my life. I had two rabbits called Two Socks and Cisco,’ she said, the names of the wolf and the horse in Dances With Wolves. ‘I got this call that Kevin wanted to talk to me, and then I got sent four scripts and I thought it must be a series. There are four of them, but they’re so big, so it didn’t really make sense. And then we had this great conversation. I’d really go to the ends of the earth for him, I think he’s phenomenal.’
For Costner, the decision to put women front and centre in a Western – and to bring all his female leads to Cannes – isn’t a cynical one. ‘It’s almost impossible to imagine a West without women, isn’t it? The West doesn’t carry on without women,’ he said. ‘I am not looking for kudos because women are in it. For me, they’re not in it, they actually dominate the movie, to be honest. Every one of those women dominate when they’re on the screen.’
He hopes that he can get funding to finish his magnificent obsession and make the third and fourth instalments (the second is already in the can). ’I used to get no money to do this, then I got a lot of money to do this, now I have to pay my own money to do this,’ he notes. ‘I love the dreaming part of movies and the writing of them. The red carpet is an incredible thing, but if you’re only in the movies for the red carpet, for the glamour of it, for the fame… I like to think I got to this place because I like the work. The dreaming part.’
Kevin Costner wears Brioni. Watch by Chopard
Sienna Miller wears Chloé and Schiaparelli
Horizon: An American Saga premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival and Release date 28 June. To see our review out of Cannes click here
