Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 4, 1995 TAG: 9508040007
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BARRY KOLTNOW ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The actors who play movie heroes are supposed to leave all those heroics on the screen. But for Kevin Costner, his heroics did not end on the last day of filming ``Waterworld.''
The futuristic action movie opened last week amid a tidal wave of negative publicity concerning Costner's personal life and a budget estimated at more than $170 million, giving it the dubious distinction of being the most expensive movie ever made.
Costner was forced into the real-life hero's role when director Kevin Reynolds stormed off the project in protest of studio demands that he trim the lengthy film. He left behind an unedited - and unreleasable - movie.
An emergency meeting was called of the movie's producers and studio executives. The atmosphere was tense as the filmmakers debated their limited options. Somebody had to edit the film, but it had to be someone with not only the skill to do the job but also the firsthand knowledge of the project. In other words, a hero.
Eyes darted around the room as the group desperately tried to come up with someone to save the day. It had to be someone in that room, but who? Could it be one of the desk-bound executives? Not likely. Or how about one of those smartly dressed producers? Not in this lifetime.
You don't suppose that stoic, take-charge, Gary Cooper-type guy sitting at the end of the table might be interested? You know, the guy who won an Oscar for directing ``Dances With Wolves''?
Duh.
``Believe me, if this had been a chess game, I would have been encircled and outmaneuvered in that room,'' said a smiling Costner, who also is one of the film's producers. ``But they didn't actually come out and say I had to do it. I had to reach the decision on my own and they knew that.
``Suddenly, I looked at my life like it was one of those movie moments. I knew how this was going to look, like I snatched the project away from Kevin and edited the film myself to make me look more heroic, but that wasn't true. Everybody knew I had to do it. I knew I had to do it. It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do.''
If you sense that Costner, 40, is a bit defensive, you're right. But it's understandable, given that the tabloid press has had a field day, not only with the film but with the very public breakup of Costner's marriage.
There was the late starting date. There was the seemingly endless shooting schedule. There were the reports of continuing disasters on the set, including the accidental sinking of a major set and the near death of Costner's stunt double in an underwater sequence.
There was the selection of Kawaihae Harbor in Hawaii as the main location (Kawaihae loosely translates to ``Warring Waters''). There were the weather problems. There were the set problems. There were the water problems. Did we mention the budget?
``There was a newspaper article that came out before we even started, and we never recovered from that article,'' producer Chuck Gordon said. ``They got the budget information wrong, and every article after that kept adding to the misconceptions.''
``But all the negative publicity did make us come together,'' the producer added. ``We knew there was no way to fight this, so we focused on making the movie we set out to make, and we did that.''
Costner said the budget nightmare was only one of three serious problems that beset this film.
The first, and probably most serious, was that the filmmakers started the project without a completed script. The second was the director. Unfortunately, the two go hand-in-hand.
``You go without a completed script and you're asking for trouble,'' Costner said, ``because then what exists is what's inside someone's mind. People can't read what's inside someone's mind, so that person [the director] has to be a master communicator.''
The implication, of course, is that Costner did not think that Reynolds was a master communicator, despite the two men's long friendship and professional association.
The two men have had several public tiffs over the years, but Costner insisted that Reynolds direct ``Waterworld.'' He now admits that hiring his friend was a mistake. Reynolds is in England and was not available for comment.
``People who make this into a power play in which I forced Kevin out don't know the facts,'' Costner said. ``I didn't force him out. If anything, I kept those people [studio execs and producers] from killing him.
``There is no question this guy got to direct the most expensive movie ever made and he got every toy he asked for. And yet, he still couldn't finish the film.
``Kevin Reynolds is not wrong, and it's not that I'm right,'' he added. ``But in retrospect, I tend to hang in with people too long sometimes, and that's what happened in this case. ... I liked his original vision, and he did an incredible job. In the end, though, he couldn't finish it.''
The third major problem was the budget mess, and Costner doesn't blame the newspaper article; he blames the studio.
``They were embarrassed to say they had greenlighted a movie that would cost at least $100 million, so they let the stories go that said it was supposed to cost $65 million. It was never supposed to cost $65 million. They knew that and said nothing, which put us behind from Day One.
``They did us a gigantic disservice; they should have admitted that this budget was always up around $130 million, but they were too embarrassed so, to save face, they put us behind the eight ball. Because of that, we were living a lie from the start and you guys [the press[ smelled it out.''
But bad press on the movie was only part of Costner's problem this past year. The dissolution of his almost 17-year marriage to his California State University, Fullerton, sweetheart, Cindy, and rampant rumors of his alleged flings on the set in Hawaii made the budget stories pale in comparison.
Yet he does not hesitate to describe how the breakup and subsequent tabloid media barrage have shattered what seemed to be an idyllic life.
``We never purported to be the perfect all-American couple, but I guess the story of two kids from Fullerton who had nothing handed to them and made it on their own and lived this regular life seemed too good to be true,'' the actor said when asked to explain the immediate and hostile reaction in the media to news of the breakup.
``I guess that kind of couple gets boring to read about, and people are always wondering what's wrong with this picture. They're always waiting for you to fall, and no one can live under that kind of scrutiny.
``What they've written about me is unbelievable. Apparently, anything can be said, and anything has been said. It's so pervasive that I can't keep my kids from reading it. When they ask me about it, I have to explain it to them, which isn't easy. I just have to teach them to think for themselves.''
Costner generally has been portrayed as the villain in the breakup, and he would give no further explanation of why the marriage ended. But he said the hurt remains.
``That was a great loss for me,'' he said. ``Nobody was more disappointed than me over the breakup. I was not cavalier over it; I didn't show up with an ingenue on my arm at the Academy Awards. I lost my friend, my partner and my wife. We had been together 20 years; this is the person I grew up with.
``It would have been nice if we could have lived happily ever after, like in the movies, but life isn't like the movies. It doesn't always have happy endings.
``I have had a really good life, a blessed life; but it is a life that has had some pain in it, like everyone else. I don't get everything I want. I'd like to do better in my life. I'd like to live a better life.
``But I haven't sorted it all out yet. I'm still on this bronc called `Waterworld' and it hasn't stopped bucking.''
by CNB