Kevin Costner has reflected on how he persevered through filming the 2016 movie “Hidden Figures” despite debilitating health conditions.
In a cover interview with People magazine, the 69-year-old actor spoke about the struggles he faced while filming the biographical drama in the spring of 2016.
“I’ve never filmed drunk, I’ve never filmed high, but I was on morphine for the last two weeks of filming. [‘Hidden Figures’]” Costner said.
“I had kidney stones for 10 days. [IV] Dripping. I don’t even know how to do it.
‘Horizon’ director Kevin Costner thanks God for allowing him to take big risks and make epic film
Kevin Costner has revealed that he developed kidney stones while filming ‘Hidden Figures’ and was put on morphine intravenously. (Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
“It was normal for about three days, and then something happened,” he recalled. “I didn’t take a day off work. I’ve never taken a day off. And then I thought I was going to have a day off. [the morphine]I developed kidney stones for the second time, something I’d never had before, and went back for treatment.
“So I was sitting in my trailer with a morphine drip in my arm.”
Loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, “Hidden Figures” follows the lives of three black women mathematicians — Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) — who, through their work at NASA, helped put astronaut John Glenn into orbit and put the United States ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.
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Janelle Monáe, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer star in the 2016 film. (Michael Stewart/Getty Images)
Costner played the fictional character Al Harrison, director of NASA’s Space Task Group, and in an interview with People magazine, he revealed that the visible bruising he experienced from his IV treatments influenced his costume choices for the film.
“So I ended up having to keep my sleeves down in the movie instead of rolling them up,” Costner said. “I wanted to cry, but I didn’t because everyone was watching.”
Directed by Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures was a commercial success and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Spencer, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Costner reflected on teaming up with Melfi to develop the character of Al Harrison, who was based on three real people.
“It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” he said of the collaboration. “Working with Ted was magical. He trusted me so much.”
The actor said working with director Theodore Melfi was “magical.” (Chris Conner/Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences via Getty Images)
“Horizon: An American Saga,” the first in Costner’s four-part post-Civil War drama, opened in theaters on Friday.
Costner stars in “Horizon”(who also wrote and directed four films.) The actor backed the saga with his own funds and said it was a passion project that dates back nearly 30 years.
“I know people are saying I put $20 million of my own money into this movie,” he previously told GQ magazine. “That’s not true. I’ve put about $38 million into this movie right now. That’s the truth. That’s the real number.”
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“Horizon: An American Saga,” the first in Costner’s four-part post-Civil War drama, opened in theaters on Friday. (Fraser Harrison/Getty Images)
But Costner recently told Entertainment Weekly that he’s not stressed out over how the movie will do during its opening weekend.
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“I’ve lived for movies and what they’re going to be like in opening weekend,” the former “Yellowstone” director said, “and if we put too much pressure on it, we’re bound to be disappointed. I’m really happy that ‘Horizon’ is what it was meant to be and that it will continue to be for the rest of its life. And that’s really important to me in this process.”
“Would I be happy if this movie was a huge success? Of course I would be happy. My ego would be happy, and so would everybody else. But I’d be happiest if this movie that you and I are talking about turns out the way I want it to.”
