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Kevin Costner is now known for his role in the neo-WesternYellowstone. However, the legendary actor has had a rollercoaster of a career since the ‘80s and the ‘90s. From his iconic role in the sports dramaField of Dreamsto his disastrous magnum opusWaterworld, Costner has seen it all.
However, his biggest success came with his directorial debutDances with Wolves, which was not only a commercial success but also earned him an Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture. The actor recounted one particular scene that was extremely difficult to achieve and took them six days and a huge favor from a former governor to execute.
Kevin Costner Won An Oscar For His Directorial Debut
The year was 1991 andKevin Costner’sdirectorial debutDances with Wolveshad twelve nominations. It was nominated in many of the big categories like Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and more. For Costner, his competition was Francis Ford Coppola forThe Godfather Part IIIand Martin Scorsese forGoodfellas.
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While Coppola had already won his previous installments ofThe Godfatherfilms, Scorsese’sGoodfellasis still considered to be one of the best gangster films of all time. Starring Ray Liotta and Robert DeNiro in lead roles, the film was based on the real story of the Mafia in New York and was one of the career-defining films for Scorsese.
Others in the category were Stephen Frears forThe Griftersand Barbet Schroeder forReversal of Fortune.At the 63rd Academy Awards, Costner’sDances with Wolveswon seven awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Costner said toGQlater about the process of choosing the film,
Well, I asked three pretty prominent directors to maybe think about directing it, and all of them had something that they would do differently, something that they didn’t agree with in the script….I said, ‘Oh my goodness, I think I actually need to direct this,’ not because I think I can make it better, but I think it’ll be more what it looks like on paper.
The film became only the second Western to be awarded Bes Picture and was credited with restarting interest in the genre. Films likeUnforgivenandNo Country for Old Menwere the only two other Westerns to win the coveted award.
Kevin Costner Described The Challenging Buffalo Scene InDances with Wolves
Kevin Costner’s epic Western directorial debutDances with Wolvesfollowed the story of a Union leader John Dunbar who is posted to the American Frontier and befriends the local Sioux tribe. The film shows him blending in with the tribespeople and understanding their culture while realizing the threat they face from his kind.
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One scene where he becomes one with the tribe is the buffalo hunt sequence. The epic sequence reportedly took six days to film and had over 3,500 bulls in attendance. Costner described the arduous process of filming the scene to GQ,
I was so grateful that [the buffalos] even existed, and then number two, had to negotiate with the rancher, ‘Will you let me chase them?’ He was the former lieutenant governor of the state, so he was a pretty evolved guy, but he said, ‘You wanna chase my buffalo?‘
And I was young, and he finally said, ‘Okay, we’ll chase them, we’ll chase them,’ and that son of a b*tch, I love him forever. He’s like 80 years old, he got in his truck, he got five other trucks, he got a helicopter, and we started chasing them for six days.
The actor mentioned that while they couldn’t get a lot of shots on the first day, he figured out what to do with the actors and then they got an incredible sequence done. He also said that the buffalos were done after six days and actually charged at the helicopter to express their anger.
Dances with Wolvesis currently available to stream on Fubo TV.
Nishanth A
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2417
Nishanth A is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows with over 2,000 articles published. He has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years and a scriptwriter at various corporations before that, working on educational content. With a Communications, English Literature, and Psychology triple major, Nishanth usually covers news and analyses on Star Trek, particularly Strange New Worlds and The Next Generation; Doctor Who, the DCU, and more.A Nolan fan, Nishanth spends his time exploring the filmographies of various directors with an auteurial style or can be found making short movies of his own. He has also contributed as a feature writer for Film Companion, focusing on the South division.
