A new feature on the decline of Kevin Costner’s career has revealed the Oscar winner “ignored” Steven Spielberg’s advice while making infamous flop Waterworld.
The Hollywood Reporter cover feature, titled How Kevin Costner Lost Hollywood, examines the star’s many controversies, including the behind-the-scenes tensions that led to his departure from TV hit drama Yellowstone.
The star was one of the biggest names in Hollywood from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, with award-winning epics like Dances With Wolves running alongside box office smashes like Field Of Dreams, and The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston.
His status at the top of the industry was tarnished, however, with the release of science fiction epic Waterworld in 1995. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where most of the Earth’s dry land is gone, the film would require most of its scenes to be shot at sea, and the article reveals that movie legend Steven Spielberg gave him advice that the star flat-out ignored.
Having experienced many issues making his breakthrough feature Jaws, the director implored Costner to shoot in a water tank rather than in open water. Waterworld would eventually choose the latter option, ballooning the budget to a then-record $175million (£131million) and becoming plagued by production troubles.
As well as hurricanes and tsunamis, there was also an incident where Costner almost drowned.
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With marketing, Waterworld was said to have cost around $235 million (£177million), and only made $264million (£198million) during its release. Given cinemas take around half the box office, the movie was a substantial failure. It would eventually become profitable through home video, although it gained a reputation as an infamous “flop” that began the decline of Costner’s time as a blockbuster leading man.
Ignoring Spielberg’s advice was illustrative of the article’s portrayal of Costner as a star who was uncompromising to the point of stubbornness. Costner’s former representative, Rick Nicita, said of the actor: “The word difficult gets used a lot. It can mean someone who won’t come out of their trailer, or someone who doesn’t know their lines, or is rude. That’s not Kevin.
“He wanted what he wanted and knew what he wanted and if he didn’t get it … well, he was never a great compromiser. It’s a firm belief in himself and a confidence that to some can play as arrogance.”
Despite his reputation, Costner would continue to find varying degrees of success as an actor, having a comeback of sorts in the 2010s with roles in Man Of Steel and Oscar winner Hidden Figures. From 2018 to 2024, he was the lead in TV series Yellowstone, which became a worldwide hit and won the actor a Golden Globe. However, disagreements over scheduling led to him quitting the second half of season five, with his character being killed off.
In other news, Steven Spielberg revealed in April what he believed to be the “greatest American film ever made.”
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