Now, as the actor fronts a new documentary series, he has spoken about the projects he wants to take on at this stage of his career, and about his “need to move on” from others.
“I’m willing to do anything where I feel like what I’m doing is for myself,” Costner said, in exclusive quotes provided to Radio Times. “It doesn’t have to be a Western, it could be something else. But when something is no longer interesting to me, or there’s some other reason that I need to move on, I’m willing to do that.
“I think you can write a short story and it can live forever. You can write a novel and it can live forever. You can make a short movie and it can live forever. It’s about how you’re telling it. It’s about if other people are going to be able to relate to it and move to it. That’s why there are certain books that continue to live with us, that we pass on to our children.
“I think the hope for me is that I can stay relevant; not only to myself, but to people who find my work. I can’t create work that I think is going to find them. I can only create work that when they do find it, it reflects what I was feeling and my sensibility. And hopefully they’re moved by it.”
Since Costner left, the original series of Yellowstone has come to an end, with numerous spin-offs at different stages of development to carry on the franchise.
Costner made the comments as he fronts new eight-part documentary series Kevin Costner’s The West.
The series, which is executive produced by Costner along with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, is said to provide a “fresh look at the epic history of the American West by delving into the desperate struggle for the land itself – and how it still shapes the America we know today”.
Speaking about the documentary, Costner said that he feels exploring the history has helped to reaffirm the truth behind some of the Western films he has starred in, which have shied away from the “romanticised” version of the period.
“When we first started making Westerns, people fell in love with the imagery,” he said. “They couldn’t believe how big the country was and how beautiful it was. When we put music to it and we saw someone on a horse, we just wanted to continue to see that image.
“To look at a town, you didn’t really understand how the town came to be; you just saw that it was existing. You didn’t think about any of the hardships, so we just romanticised what we saw. We didn’t see the exploration and the confrontation, which was inch-by-inch and usually ended in blood.
“People didn’t really want to see that; the slaughter, fear and cultures clashing. People flinched when they saw that, but the romantic idea is one of heroism, which is a little more acceptable.”
Costner continued: “Everything that happened in Dances with Wolves or Open Range or Horizon actually happened out there. I didn’t make those stories up. There were interactions and they all have truth to them. They’re made up ideas, but those interactions happened a million times.
“The documentary serves to back up those kind of stories. There were slaves and there were captives in the West. We did mislead Native Americans for our own good – and we kept doing it, from one shore to the other shore. The Western movies that I did, in my mind, are true. They are honest. They are real. In some way, this documentary backs it all up.”
Kevin Costner’s The West will air from Monday 15th September at 9pm on Sky HISTORY and NOW. Find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.
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