Kevin Costner doesn’t have a reputation as a party guy, but there was apparently a moment early in his career when his path could have taken quite a turn.
Costner, 69, opened up about his early days in Hollywood during the Monday, June 3, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast, detailing his first — and seemingly only — experience with cocaine. While he was still looking for his big break, Costner worked as a stage manager at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles, helping produce commercials and low-budget projects.
At one point, the studio landed a slightly higher-budget project, and a team of electricians came in to rewire the stage.
“The electricians came over like rock stars,” Costner recalled. “They were prepping it, strong like [Dax], you know, the whole thing. They were there for three weeks just stringing cable and then sets were being built.”
As a nonunion employee, Costner ended up working as a jack of all trades for various departments. “Whenever they needed something, I got it for them,” he said, adding that eventually the newcomers decided to thank him in a decidedly 1980s fashion.
“At one point, they take me back into the grip room and say, ‘Here,’ and they put out a little line of coke. And they say, like, ‘Thank you for all the s–t you’re doing for us,’” Costner told Shepard, 49.
Attempting to fit in, Costner decided to try the drug, but he quickly realized it wasn’t for him.
“So, I do that and nothing, and I do it a second time and I do it a third time,” the Oscar winner recalled. “And finally I said to them, I said, ‘Hey, look, how much is that?’ And he says, ‘That’s about $20 right there,’ and I said, ‘Can I say something to you?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, f–k, of course, man, what?’ And I said, ‘Look, I’m trying to buy my first house,’ and I said, ‘If you think what I’m doing’s cool, I could use $20. I could take a twenty.’ And I was out of the club immediately.”
Costner’s plea for monetary compensation over substance-based rewards didn’t go over well, and his friendship with the grips was over as soon as it started — but he has no regrets about his decision to back away from their scene.
“I saw myself excluded because I didn’t want to do this,” he said. “It was kind of lucky for me that I didn’t like coke. There was nothing there for me.”
Within a few years, Costner became a star in front of the camera, landing roles in films like The Untouchables, Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. In 1990, he made his directorial debut with Dances With Wolves, in which he also starred. The film took home Best Picture and Best Director for Costner at the 1991 Academy Awards.
More recently, Costner starred as John Dutton in Yellowstone, which premiered in 2018. Its season 5 premiere, which aired in late 2022, was the most-watched show of that year, with nearly 16 million viewers.
After taking a nearly 20-year break from directing, Costner will be back later this year with Horizon: An American Saga, which he plans to release in four parts. Chapter 1 is set to hit theaters on June 28, while Chapter 2 will follow on August 16.
