ALL- AMERICAN ACTOR KEVIN COSTNER IS RELISHING HIS CHANCE TO PLAY THE BAD GUY, FOR A CHANGE.
Costner eschews all-American typecasting
Kevin Costner has fashioned a fine career playing a variation on the all- American male theme in movies ranging from 1989’s Field of Dreams to last year’s McFarland.
His latest crime drama Criminal alters that. In the film, the 61- year- old plays Jericho Stewart, a dangerous lifer convict who is transported to London from his American prison.
It turns out he’s the perfect candidate for an operation which allows a scientist to transfer an assassinated CIA agent’s memories into Jericho’s brain in order to thwart a terrorist’s deadly plan.
The modern-day spy story with a Frankenstein twist is not a coincidence. As co-writer David Weisberg says: “We wanted to do a hero movie with the wrong guy to do the mission.”
Costner was an unlikely first choice for director Ariel Vromen, and at first, the actor balked at the idea but was persuaded to take on the against-type role.
“We know they’re trying to make this (brain transfer) thing work in science today,” says Costner at a Beverly Hills hotel. “Still, it’s a complicated character for me. I’ve never had a part where I almost didn’t know how to play it.”
Lucky for him, he’s surrounded by veterans. Ryan Reynolds plays the spy who dies. Gal Gadot is the spy’s wife who gets involved in the assignment. Tommy Lee Jones portrays the doctor who administers the experimental mind meld, while Gary Oldman is the CIA operative sorting out the mess.
When Costner arrived on the London set of Criminal, though, he was still figuring out how to define his sociopath who begins to transform post- operation into the more accessible personality of the agent.
The goal was simple for all concerned.
“Can we get people to believe this?” Costner says. “You know you’re attempting something if you take this concept and make it work.”
He also went to extremes with Jericho’s edgy look, yet another departure for the Oscar- honoured actor and filmmaker.
“I cut all my hair and shaved the beard I’d grown for the prison scenes,” Costner says of his first- day shooting Criminal. “I wasn’t even sure what my voice was going to be.”
And, in keeping with the Frankenstein reference, he went for a semi-shaved skull approach “to show the holes in my head and the scars in the back of my neck.”
Besides that, the filmmaker and team player in him helped out by doing some second unit work.
“It was only in a sense that ( my character) had to do the underwater work in one sequence, but I did that myself with a stunt man/ camera man,” Costner says. “We were there, and Ariel ( Vromen) was off having to do something else … and I’ve filmed in water a lot before.”
Adding to his performance anxiety was a tense scene he had to pull off his inaugural week of filming. “I had to say, ‘ Hi Gal ( Gadot), nice to meet you. I’m going to be undressing you and I will be tying you up’. Gal was a little scared. I can say that for sure, but we got it done.”
The sequence counted as a Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice reunion of sorts. Gadot introduces herself as Wonder Woman in the movie. Costner briefly reprises his role as Superman’s earthly father Jonathan Kent at the request of director Zack Snyder.
“Zack said, ‘ I want you to be a kind of ( apparition) where Superman sees you on the mountain ’— it’s weird,” recalls the actor. “I go, ‘ Well, I guess what else is new about Superman?’”
In the meantime, he is about to return to more familiar movie territory.
“I have a Western that I want to direct,” confirms Costner. “I’d like to direct it next spring. I just came back from scouting it last week in New Mexico. It will be about 10 hours long, so I’m not going to leave anything out.” Whether it will be presented as a miniseries or multiple films hasn’t been worked out yet.
“I haven’t figured out the ( series) configuration,” he says. “It could also be four movies ... released every six months.”
I’VE NEVER HAD A PART WHERE I ALMOST DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO PLAY IT.