“No One Put a Gun to His Head”: Mick Jackson on His Fallout with Kevin Costner

Creative Control and Clashing Egos: Kevin Costner vs. His Directors

In 1991, tensions behind the scenes of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves boiled over when star Kevin Costner locked director Kevin Reynolds out of the editing suite to re-cut the film himself. It was a dramatic move that fractured their friendship—a relationship that had started years earlier when Reynolds cast Costner in Fandango (1985).

If Reynolds had glimpsed the future, he might have seen Robin Hood as merely the beginning of a pattern. On Costner’s next project, he would once again assert control—this time during the making of The Bodyguard—resulting in yet another rift with the film’s director, Mick Jackson.

The Bodyguard, based on a script by Lawrence Kasdan originally written in 1977, was a long-time passion project. In the years it took to get the film made, Kasdan had risen to prominence with screenwriting credits on The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and his directorial success The Big Chill. But when the project finally came to life in the early ’90s, it was Costner—fresh off the massive success of Robin Hood, JFK, and his Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves—who held the power.

Director Mick Jackson, known for Chattahoochee (1989) and L.A. Story (1991), quickly realized he was working under Costner’s looming shadow. In a 1992 Empire interview, Costner described the production as a collaborative effort between himself, Jackson, Kasdan, and producer Jim Wilson. “Sometimes Mick’s suggestions were listened to and sometimes they were not,” Costner said. “But no one put a gun to another person’s head and said, ‘Do this.’”

On paper, it sounds civil. But in reality, the dynamic was anything but. Jackson’s role as director became increasingly marginalized. Though he guided the film through production and months of editing, his cut was ultimately rejected. Costner, Kasdan, and Wilson stepped in to re-edit the movie, trimming 15 to 20 minutes from Jackson’s version. “The director’s cut was just too long,” Wilson remarked, adding, “Kevin, Larry, and I have all directed movies… This is a common thing.”

The irony wasn’t lost on many. Costner—who had just directed the nearly three-hour Dances with Wolves—now found fault in someone else’s film for being overly long. For Jackson, it was the final blow. With no creative ground left to stand on, he withdrew from the project and refused to participate in any press or promotional efforts.

His absence didn’t go unnoticed. Some accused him of “doing a Reynolds”—a reference to his predecessor’s silent protest on Robin Hood. But it made little difference. The Bodyguard was a box office juggernaut, one of the biggest hits of 1992, and few audiences even knew who had directed it.