Kevin Costner Almost Quit Hollywood Because of This Movie: “I Didn’t Act for About Six Years”
Kevin Costner’s journey to stardom in Hollywood was far from easy. Even after establishing himself, his bold approach of taking big risks often put his hard-earned reputation on the line.
Sometimes, those risks paid off spectacularly. His breakthrough came with Dances with Wolves, a three-hour Western that defied expectations by sweeping awards and becoming a worldwide box office hit.
However, not all his ventures were successful. Waterworld was a gamble that didn’t quite pay off, The Postman was a critical and commercial failure, and the ambitious four-part series Horizon has struggled, with its first installment flopping and the future of the series uncertain.
Despite these setbacks, Costner has no regrets. He prefers to fail while following his own vision rather than succeed by someone else’s rules—a stance that’s admirable. His real rise began with the 1985 films Fandango and Silverado, which revealed his star potential and quickly made him one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors. Had he given up acting during his earlier hiatus, none of that would have happened.
In fact, Costner initially hoped The Big Chill (1983) would be his big break. Instead, he was cut from the final film, which dealt a heavy blow to the then-aspiring actor—especially since he had recently returned to acting after becoming disillusioned with his early roles and disappearing from the industry for a time.
“They were casting exploitation films, and my acting teacher asked if I wanted to take a role, and I said yes because I wanted experience,” Costner told Interview. “I did a low-budget sex comedy called Sizzle Beach, then a movie called Shadows Run Black where I played a murder suspect. I felt like I needed to become something more, because those movies weren’t the right path. So I didn’t act for about six years after that.”
Costner didn’t just regret his debut in the 1981 sex comedy Sizzle Beach, USA; he actively tried to erase it from existence. When he became famous, the production company Troma bought the rights to the obscure B-movie and planned to re-release it to profit from his newfound fame. Costner even offered to buy the original film negative to destroy it.
Though he wasn’t successful in completely erasing it, he did prevent them from inserting a sex scene he filmed for Sizzle Beach into a completely different movie. At least that was a win.
With higher standards, Costner made his return in the gambling drama Stacy’s Knights, which he described as “decent and not exploitative.” It was a modest improvement, but still a step up from his earlier work.
