Kevin Costner Mr Brooks Interview by Tim Nasson
Kevin Costner was born in Lynwood, California, the youngest of the three sons (the middle son died at childbirth) of William Costner, an electrician and laterly utilities executive, and Sharon Rae Tedrick, a welfare worker. He has German, Irish and Cherokee ancestry. Costner attended elementary school at McKevette School in Santa Paula, California. A poor student, Costner enjoyed sports in spite of his small stature, and took piano lessons, wrote poetry and even sang in the First Baptist Choir.
Spending his teenage years in various parts of California as his father’s career progressed, the family lived in Orange County, then in Visalia, attending Mt. Whitney High School, and finally graduated from Villa Park High School in Villa Park, California in 1973. He went on to earn a B.A. in business from California State University, Fullerton in 1978, where he was a member and President of the Delta Chi Fraternity and met Portuguese student Cindy Silva.
Kevin Costner became interested in acting while still in college, and upon graduation married Cindy. The couple honeymooned in Puerto Vallarta, and on the return plane journey had a chance encounter with actor and fellow passenger Richard Burton, who struck up a conversation with him. Burton advised the young man that if he wanted to pursue acting, he should give everything up completely and go after it with both hands.
Having agreed to undertake a job as a marketing executive on return, with the support of his wife Costner began taking acting lessons five nights a week – his marketing job lasted 30 days. He took work which allowed him to develop his acting skills via tuition, including working on fishing boats, as a truck driver, and giving tours of stars’ Hollywood homes to support the couple while he also made the audition rounds.
Kevin Costner made his film debut in the 1974 film, “Sizzle Beach, U.S.A.”, at age 19, although the film was not released until 1986 (after “Silverado” made him famous). Costner then appeared in a commercial for the Apple Lisa in 1983. He was cast in the hit The Big Chill (1983). He filmed several scenes which were planned as flashbacks, but they never made it to the final cut. He was the friend who committed suicide, the event around which the plot of the movie revolves. All that is seen of him are his slashed wrists as the mortician dresses his corpse in the movie’s opening scenes. Costner was a friend of director Lawrence Kasdan, who later promised the actor a role in a future project, which became the 1985 film Silverado and became a breakout role for Costner. In return, Costner helped to get Kasdan’s 1975 script for the The Bodyguard produced.
Costner’s most popular success was the epic Dances with Wolves (1990). He directed and starred in the film and served as one of two producers. The film was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven, including two for him personally (Best Picture and Best Director). Costner followed this with Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991), the Oliver Stone-directed JFK (1991) and The Bodyguard (1992), all of which provided huge box office takings or critical acclaim. Some of his subsequent film efforts have been criticized for being too long and overly serious, and for squandering financial resources. Costner has included his family members in several of his films, including Dances with Wolves (his children Annie, Lily and Joe), Tin Cup (his son Joe and his own parents), For Love of the Game (childhood home movies) and The Postman (again featuring his children Annie, Lily and Joe).
He also took the title role in the biopic Wyatt Earp (1994), directed by established collaborator Lawrence Kasdan, which fizzled at the summer 1994 box office. The science fiction epics Waterworld (1995) and The Postman (1998), the latter of which Costner also directed, were both initially considered major disappointments at the box office. However, Waterworld grossed $264 million worldwide from a $175 million budget, despite generally poor reviews. Costner developed the film Air Force One and was set to play the lead role, but ultimately decided to concentrate on finishing The Postman instead. He personally offered the project to Harrison Ford. Costner tried his hand at singing in The Postman, recording a duet with Contemporary Christian music and pop music artist Amy Grant for the end credits. The song is titled “You Didn’t Have To Be So Nice”.
Costner’s career revived somewhat in 2000 with “Thirteen Days.” “Open Range,” which he directed and starred in, received immense critical acclaim in 2003 as a Revisionist Western, though it was only a minor success commercially. In 2006, he branched into the music field, performing free concerts for charity. A June 2006 concert netted almost $100,000 for four Shreveport, Louisiana charities. Costner stars in The Guardian, which also stars Ashton Kutcher and was released September 29, 2006. He also stars in the upcoming Mr. Brooks, where he will play a serial killer. Mr Brooks also stars William Hurt, and is planned for release in June 2007. Costner was honored on September 6, 2006, when his hand and foot prints were set in the concrete in front of Grauman’ Chinese Theatre along side other great actors and entertainers.
Currently, Kevin Costner can be seen on the big screen in the title role of “Mr. Brooks.”
Wild About Movies: What made you want to take on this kind of dark role?
KEVIN COSTNER: The decision was pretty simple. The movie, I thought, was the star. I thought the writing was the star of the movie, and I thought that while I didn’t see myself like that person, I thought I could do this, you know? And so when I make up my mind, first and foremost, is it a movie…Because even though you have to professionally cover movies, I’m sure that deep down you do love movies, and probably love movies when they surprise you. And I think that this movie kind of, on paper, I thought it had all those moments. If we embraced them and went for them, I understood that it would be seen as a departure. [Laughs] I understood all the things that would come with it, but I still felt like, if I’m going to make a life of making movies, then I should try to make different kinds of movies. And this seemed to fit in a positive way.
Wild About Movies: Did you consider directing this?
KEVIN COSTNER: I thought about that, but when I realized what the pedigree of the project was, that the writers who wrote it wanted to direct it, then we had a discussion about that. I could have done that, but in this instance, this was important for him to direct. And I’ve worked with a lot of first-time directors, writer/directors, and I thought, “I’ll give this a chance.”
Wild About Movies: Did you decide right away that you wanted to produce it as well?
KEVIN COSTNER: I knew without a doubt that I would have to do that. I knew that I would also have to have final cut on it. If you like the movie, the odd things about it I knew would be things that would be cut first. If you don’t like blood, blood would be gone. If you don’t like this, that would be gone. Because they ask audiences, ‘What do you like?’ ‘I don’t like this.’ But I thought that this piece was dark. It’s insidious, what it is. Even though we ashamedly find ourselves laughing at some moments, the oddity of it, I felt that it needed to be true to itself, and I didn’t want to see it…If no one else wanted to make this movie and I wanted to make it, why would I let anybody try to flatten it out and make it more generic? So while I know maybe some longtime people who’ve enjoyed my movies might be offended by this, might think that it’s too harsh, I get that, and I accept that. But I don’t want to cater to my audience, I just want to feed it, you know? Take or not take it. It’s an honest effort.
Wild About Movies: Talk about working with Dane Cook. And were you familiar with his stand-up?
KEVIN COSTNER: I wasn’t familiar with his stand-up. And I’m actually glad, because I don’t completely understand his stand-up all the time. But I understand him, and I understand his desire to not be pigeonholed, be conformed. And he read for me. He read for this movie. He did all the things that someone who has a bigger idea about their career does. They want something that they see themselves being a part of something unique, and he did, and that’s why he got the part. And he was sensational in it.
Wild About Movies: Do you see a little of Mr. Brooks in yourself?
KEVIN COSTNER: Well, the things that we all see in ourselves in Mr. Brooks are that we would all go defend our daughter. Mad as hell, but we would go kill for them. And so there are things that…Mr. Brooks isn’t looking for forgiveness. ‘Oh, don’t you see that I’m really a nice guy?’ No, he’s not. He has a disease. When that disease isn’t working, he is a nice guy. But the families that he’s dismantled, both the ones that have died and the boat wake that comes after…That kind of thing that families are destroyed forever–mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters…We don’t really deal with that. We have to know in our hearts that that’s what is…That’s why we can’t ever forgive him.
But what Mr. Brooks is successful at, I think, is that it creates a certain kind of empathy. And empathy always comes in our life when we have a level of understanding. You may not like the serial killer, can never forgive him. He destroyed your girlfriend’s life forever, blah blah blah, ‘I hate him, I wish he never was born.’ You might know him and know that he was assaulted and abused since he was 3 years old. And you can’t forgive him either, and you can’t say anything, but in your heart, you go, ‘That poor fucker never had a chance.’ You have empathy because you have a level of understanding of him. And so in movies, we can create a level of understanding if we choose to invest in a character. And that’s what made Mr. Brooks stand out to me as a serial killer movie. Because I don’t like serial killer movies. I don’t like scary movies. I get scared. I’m uncomfortable. I don’t like roller coasters or shit like that. I don’t like being scared. It’s not an adrenaline rush for me. So Mr. Brooks really had to pass a lot of things for me to want to even be a part of it. And it did.
Wild About Movies: Were you scared when you watched it?
KEVIN COSTNER: No.
Wild About Movies: Or when you read it?
KEVIN COSTNER: Come on, man.
Wild About Movies: How was it playing opposite William Hurt?
KEVIN COSTNER: It was fun. I mean, I’ve known William because of The Big Chill, and we both are rehearsal-oriented actors, and writer-driven actors. So it fit into our game really nicely.
Wild About Movies: Was Marshall based on somebody?
KEVIN COSTNER: Yes. Marshall was based on a…I found Marshall when I was 12 years old in a book of children’s dreams. And he would play basically a Black Knight, an evil person. But I liked him so much in the book because he was kind of cool. And I liked him so much, actually, I was afraid he was going to die in the book, so I never finished it. And my father used to discipline me with the idea that if I wasn’t good, that the Black Knight would come and get me. That it would come and get me, that it actually hid in my closet. And like any young man, eventually you challenge your dad’s theory and you open that closet. And there was my imaginary friend, and he was not scary at all to me. And so he’s been with me. Sort of my alter-ego. And that began when I was 12 years old.
Wild About Movies: Bruce Evans had only directed one film prior to Mr. Brooks. What did he do to convince you that visually he could accomplish this?
KEVIN COSTNER: Well, I didn’t look at his other movie. I didn’t want to. Because once I committed to him as a director, I wanted to try to support him, and I didn’t want to get panicked. I mean, I had heard different things. I didn’t want to jade that. Once I gave him my word that he would get a chance to direct it, I wanted to back that up. But I wanted also to protect the movie by keeping final cut.
Wild About Movies: What is something that you look for in a script? What jumps out at you?
KEVIN COSTNER: Just fresh air. Just like something that seems highly original. I would never do this movie if it was pitched to me. But I would have never done Field of Dreams if it was pitched to me. It takes a writer that really has his muse working on his shoulder, you know? And you just go, ‘Wow.’ It was just an incredible window that they found into this subject. I thought Thirteen Days, for instance…It was great. The window into that story was through Kenny O’Donnell. Not Jack’s point of view or Bobby’s point of view, you know? It’s hard, writing. That’s why it’s hard to write. It’s not easy. It’s an artform.
Wild About Movies: What is your inspiration for writing? Does it just come to you?
KEVIN COSTNER: It just comes to me. I don’t consider myself a great writer, but I feel like I recognize a great idea, and I feel like I protect great writing. I think that’s my talent.
Wild About Movies: Do you think great writing isn’t protected a lot in Hollywood?
KEVIN COSTNER: I don’t think that it is, no. Because the minute you’re willing to ask an audience what they think about a movie, I think that no one cares about the writing. They care what they think. And I think that’s foolish. But unlike conventional wisdom, I don’t go out and make a movie when a script is 60% just because I got the actor now and the director, and I think the job’s done. I’m anal. I don’t even go out to actors till my script is 100% done because I don’t want anybody changing it. Annette Bening and Robert Duvall didn’t change a line on Open Range. Why? Because I was sure that it worked. We didn’t change any lines, William Hurt and Dane Cook and I, in our half of the movie.
Not a line. Because I was positive it worked, you know? Yeah, there’s blood. There’s a lot of blood. But that’s what this movie is about. But there’s a lot of tenderness in it, too. So what is everybody so afraid of? Not being #1 at the box office? Well, we ain’t going to be. We’re not even going to come close. But we can be a movie that’s so true to itself that you might want to take a friend back to it. Or you might not ever want to see it again because of what it is. I’m not saying it’s an easy thing. But somebody else, it might speak so loudly to. ‘I want you to see this movie.’ And I’m proud that those moments are in there that would drive you back to it. I think it has classicness.
Wild About Movies: Talk a little about the western you’re working on now, and if you’re using the same editor from Open Range?
KEVIN COSTNER: I’ll probably use the same guy. Yeah, it’s just a good cowboy movie about friendship and there’s a code. It’s done, it’s written, it’s 100% done. People aren’t dying to make them. I’ll just have to figure out how to make it. I have to mortgage something else.
Wild About Movies: Do you think there is a “killer gene” or a predisposition to serial killing that is passed on from parent to child?
KEVIN COSTNER: I don’t really know. I think I don’t really know. You hear of alcoholism being passed on in genes and stuff like that. I think we’re the generation that’s just learning about what gets passed on. I mean, our eyes are opening every day as to what…We go, ‘Oh my God’…I mean, just about the time we think a protein diet is the right one, somebody goes, ‘So wrong!
So wrong!’ I mean, every diet, everything’s got something. Somebody goes, ‘Wrong!’ You know, four years later. What’s clear is people live under enormous pressure. There’s too many of us in the city. There’s too many of us…Look, it’s weird out there. It’s weird out there. I mean, we’re all like some number, you know? ‘One out of somebody’ gets assaulted, and women have it worse. It’s like, ‘What the fuck?’ I mean, we’re like a percentage of something going bad somewhere. It’s terrible.
