Kevin Costner has shared the screen with some serious Hollywood heavyweights throughout his forty-plus years in the business. There's Gary Oldman, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Robert De Niro... the list goes on. When asked which of his scene partners is the greatest actor he's ever worked with, the Yellowstone star named two-time Academy Award winner Gene Hackman, remembering a moving interaction the pair shared.
"People ask all the time, 'Who's the best actor? Who's the biggest star? Blah blah blah.' The line's long for the great actors I've been able to work with, it really is," Costner said in a 2017 appearance on The Rich Eisen Show. While he did show some love for Sean Connery's star power (the pair co-starred in The Untouchables), Costner ultimately named Gene Hackman the greatest to ever do it: "I think Gene Hackman was the best actor that I'd ever worked with. I think Sean Connery's the biggest star I'd ever worked with."
Costner and Hackman shared the screen in the 1987 thriller No Way Out, in which a navy officer (Costner) goes head-to-head with Hackman's crooked politician over a murdered woman. Thirty years later, Costner recounted the on-set drama that led to a deeply emotional moment with Hackman.
As he tells it, Costner urged No Way Out director Roger Donaldson to change the blocking of a scene. After a contentious back-and-forth that Hackman witnessed in silence, Costner had to reassure Donaldson that his scene partner would find his footing with the new blocking:
"At one point, [Donaldson was] like, 'Well, what's Gene gonna do?' And I said, 'Gene will figure out what to do... 'cause he's really good. Gene will figure out what to do.'"
Gene Hackman and Kevin Costner in No Way Out. (Orion Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
When filming wrapped, Hackman called Costner over to his car in the studio parking lot. Costner was expecting a berating, but the legendary actor instead gave him a thumbs-up for fighting to make the scene better.
"[Gene Hackman] looked at me and he said, 'Hey, uh, you know, I went through a divorce. I've been doing a lot of kind of questionable movies lately. And when I saw you fighting for what you wanted today, it reminded me of how I used to feel about acting. It was good, what you did'," Costner recalled. "And then he just got in his car and drove off."
Evidently, Hackman's warning against becoming disillusioned in showbiz had a profound effect on Costner.
In August 2022, the actor reposted his 2017 interview clip on Twitter to celebrate the 35th anniversary of No Way Out's release. In the caption, Costner wrote: "I want to share this story of Gene Hackman that I told on the @RichEisenShow a few years back that has stuck with me to this day."
35 years ago today we released ?No Way Out?! In honor of this anniversary, I want to share this story of Gene Hackman that I told on the @RichEisenShow a few years back that has stuck with me to this day. pic.twitter.com/7t30twbvOI
— Kevin Costner & MW (@modernwest) August 13, 2022
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