As a kid, playing outside was the best. Between the scraped knees from riding bikes a little too fast to the bug bites and dinner bell when it was dark, playing outside was a right of passage. Kevin Costner had a normal childhood just like us, saying that he ‘didn’t come home until the street lights came on’ in a recent interview with Jake Hamilton for his show, Jake’s Takes.
As for the star’s upbringing, Kevin Costner says he was normal like everyone else. He credits his time outside being athletic to his success as an actor later in life.
“I’m just a kid from the streets, a public school kid. I was born in Compton, and we play, you know, you made up your games in the street. No chips on windows, you know, and basketball. We just didn’t come home until the street lights came on, and so, you know, I was able to bring a lot of what I dreamed about doing to the movies and what I was able to do.”
Kevin Costner Knows His Athletic Range
The Yellowstone actor adds that while he might be athletic in some sports, Kevin Costner knows his range and says that some things you cannot fake.
“I mean, I don’t take on an athletic movie if I don’t think I could pull it off because there’s nothing worse, actually. I mean, I wouldn’t do a hockey movie, I like hockey, but I don’t know how to skate, so it’s useless for me to go, ‘well, I can go act that.’ You can’t.”
Anyone who has played a sport and then watched a movie on it agrees that the actor must be well versed to be convincing. Costner agrees and says that people that are trying to pretend are obvious.
“It’s Daniel Day-Lewis, you know, maybe our greatest actors, if you can’t kick a ball, if you can’t throw a ball, you can’t out act that, and you know right away. There’s something blank about the athletic move that anybody that plays a sport understands it.”
So far, Kevin Costner has put his athletic abilities to the test, playing a professional baseball player in Field of Dreams, a horse-riding cowboy in Yellowstone, and a cross country coach in McFarland USA, among many more.
