Kevin Costner wishes he was a better actor in one of his movies

In early 1987, Kevin Costner was best known as cocky gunslinger Jake. Lawrence Kasdan's Western novel Silverado. This was a good role from the director who cut Costner out of “The Big Chill” because his portrayal of deadbeat Alex didn't play well with test audiences; basically, the ensemble cast had done such a great job of fleshing out Alex that the then-unknown Costner couldn't live up to the legend. And while it was a nice gesture on Kasdan's part, Silverado didn't quite catch fire at the box office in the summer of 1985.

So when Costner got the plum role Elliott Ness in Brian De Palma's 1987 gangster saga The Untouchables Paramount Pictures launched a publicity blitz to sell the handsome 32-year-old actor as a major movie star that finally arrived. Decked out in delicate Giorgio Armani threads and armed with David Mamet's razor-sharp dialogue, Costner essentially practiced with a corked stick. How could he not rise to full movie stardom as Ness with De Palma behind the camera and Sean Connery and Robert De Niro as his brains?

Most people will tell you that Costner has performed as expected, but he will say that he could have done better. How is that? Entering the role, he gained one thing his co-stars had that he lacked: experience.

In a 2024 interview with GQ In conjunction with the release of his unfinished western epic Horizon: An American Saga, Costner opened up about the making of The Untouchables. Although the film is an undisputed classic, grossing $76 million in the US (good enough to rank #6 in 1987), Costner thinks he brought a knife to the fight.

“'The Untouchables' was a really well-written script,” Costner said. “David Mamet had written a really perfect script, and that's why I wanted to be a part of it. Brian de Palma directed it, and of course Sean Connery was in it, you know, Robert De Niro, and it was a good moment when I I'm in that movie.” It was a good moment, but it wasn't the right moment for Costner. “I actually don't think Sean is the kind of guy who would like me,” he said. “I don't know why, but he did. He was good to me. And I learned a lot because my eyes were opened. I wish I was a better actor doing The Untouchables, but I was where I was. “.

Some critics were unkind to Costner in 1987. Roger Ebert wrote“The script doesn't give him and (Costner) doesn't give him any of the little character twists that might have made Ness an individual.” I don't agree with that. Whatever we know about Ness's post-Prohibition life (like that he became a barely employable drunk), De Palma's film has no purchase. History as a whole has no purchase. Do you think Ness led the Canadian border liquor raid with the Mounties? Pure fantasy. De Palma and Mamet's Ness is a scout because that's what this formulaic gangster movie calls for. Costner does as an actor and director. Had he been more confident, he might have second-guessed De Palma like he does with other directors, and that would be bad. De Palma got him at the right timeand Costner was the real naive. Here, as Sean Connery Malone would say, the hour ends.