Being the director’s son didn’t get Hayes Costner any special treatment.
One of the biggest Western stars of our time, Kevin Costner famously dropped out of Yellowstone to work on his own movie series, Horizon: An American Saga. Almost just as famously, Costner cast his 15-year-old son Hayes in one of the semi-central roles — and despite all the speculations, being his father’s son earned Hayes exactly no special privileges on the set of Horizon.
If anything, Kevin Costner came down even harder on him than on the others because of it.
Kevin Costner Went Hard on His Son
There are two types of good-natured parents: some shower their beloved children with gifts and privileges as much as they can, and others think about the future, helping their kids become better versions of themselves even if it means restrictions. Kevin Costner belongs to the latter category, as he’s proven during the filming of Horizon — when even his lead star felt like he was going too hard on his son Hayes.
“[Sienna Miller is] our leading lady. She’s incredible in the movie. And she came to me one time, she says, ‘You’re kind of hard on Hayes.’ And I said, ‘I know. I need him to be really good, and he’s inexperienced, and I’m going to help him all the way through.’ And in the end, Hayes started doing some things on his own that were just magical, and I’m really proud of his performance,” Costner explained to People.
Costner Was Judged for Casting His Son
But even if we take a step back from this case, the accusations themselves were ridiculous. One would think that a person who’d mortgaged their house and poured most of their life savings into a passion project would be able to cast whoever they want to cast in their movie, right? Kevin Costner has proven more than dedicated to his craft, so we don’t get the whole nepo baby talk in the first place.
