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‘Yellowstone’ Star Kevin Costner Talks About Being ‘in Love With the History of America’

If one thing comes across in Kevin Costner’s body of work, it is his undying love and respect for the history of America. Speaking to this at length with Visit California recently, the “Yellowstone” star reveals how the “beauty” and “ugliness” of America’s past shapes everything he does in the present.

From “Wyatt Earp” to “Dances with Wolves” to “JFK,” Kevin Costner has made a remarkable career out of the brutal history of our country. This is no accident, either, as the Hollywood icon is very quick to state:

“I am in love with the history of America.”

There is no acknowledging the triumphs of the United States, however, without first seeing the deep cuts, bruises, and festering wounds America has wrought itself with. And to his credit, Kevin Costner is indebted to it all.

“The expansion of it,” he continues, “and the violence and the ugliness that came with that. The resourcefulness that people had to have in order to carve out a life.”

No matter the facet, bloody or shining bright, Costner’s goal has always been to see it. Hear it. And then learn from it. Through his film and television work, the icon hopes to pass these sentiments onto audiences.

Long has the actor and director sought to shine a light on some of America’s most troubling historical atrocities, right alongside fighting for a brighter future through its triumphs, too.

Kevin Costner Details the Importance of ‘Understanding What Was Before Us’

“The history of America… Our fingerprints are on a lot of things. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good… And I love all of it. Every bit of it,” he continues.

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“Dances with Wolves” (Photo by Tig Productions/Getty Images)

Now, Costner is also doing the same through his co-owned travel app, HearHere. The app is a remarkable achievement, one that provides real-time societal and historical information for the destinations users travel to. To this end, Costner says that the true history of his country was paramount in crafting the stories HearHere tells of American locales.

“When I got involved with HearHere, I said ‘we have to deal with Native Americans! And we have to deal with them, not out of generosity, but out of being authentic. Out of understanding what was before us,” he reveals.

“Listen, not everybody’s in love with history as I am! I get that! So HearHere is, thank God, about a lot more than that.”

For his part, Kevin Costner wants people to “dig down” and experience the true history of the United States. Whether that’s through our remarkable achievements, or our lowest of lows, having this dual truth within HearHere was and is paramount.

“If people want to dig down… That’s what I wanted for HearHere. And we’re going to have to expand from the three minute stories because I make three hour movies!” Costner jokes. If you’re doing the narrating, Mr. Costner, we’re all for it!

“We have to get deeper and deeper and deeper into the stories that haunt us, thrill us, and inform us,” the “Yellowstone” star concludes of the subject for Visit California.

And with Kevin Costner behind the wheel, Outsider has no doubt they will.