Kevin Costner has worked with an abundance of iconic actors in his time. Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, James Earl Jones, Dennis Hopper, and more all exist within his orbit. Despite any of his flops at the box office, the Yellowstone actor earns his respect from his contemporaries. However, it's one actor in particular that he feels represents his vision of Hollywood.
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In a 2022 conversation with Front Row Features, Costner sits down to talk about Field of Dreams. There, he particularly highlights Burt Lancaster, someone he believes is a beacon in Hollywood. "I'm glad we're talking about Burt Lancaster because he's the kind of actor that this industry was built on," he stresses.
"[He is] a piece of manpower that knows how to command the screen," Costner continues. "When Burt Lancaster took that part, it was really great to see. It was at the end of his career. I have a fondness for him because he's obviously a physical actor, and that's been a lot of my stock-in-trade."
Kevin Costner Adores Burt Lancaster's work in Field of Dreams
It's that sense of physicality that Kevin translates to his time on Waterworld as well. He likens one scene on that film to the kind of work that Lancaster would display in his films. "In Waterworld, there's a moment where I hang off the side of the ship and it's an athletic move, something a gymnast would do, and I did that for Burt. We'd lost him and it was in homage to him," Costner explains. "He was a pro and he struggled in (our) movie and everybody waited for him, and the reason why we waited (is because) how great he was, because it only had to happen once and he had the magic.
Costner holds a similar heartfelt sentiment for another costar of his in Whitney Houston. Their relationship was so close off screen, he still posts about Whitney on her birthdays. For her 70th, he shares a picture of them on their film The Bodyguard and stresses how grateful he is to keep her memory alive. "This photo reminds me of how lucky I am to be getting another birthday. We lost such a light when we lost Whitney," Costner writes.
