Kevin Costner defends ‘selfishly’ casting his son in ‘Horizon’ after awful film reviews

It is a loved ones make a difference. 

Kevin Costner is defending casting his son Hayes in his film “Horizon: An American Saga,” as the film receives critically panned. 

The “Dances With Wolves” star and director, 69, cast his 15-calendar year-outdated son as Nathaniel Kittredge in the initially of the 4-aspect, Civil War-period Western without having an audition.

“I know there are so numerous youthful actors out there that would just destroy to be in this motion picture,” he instructed the “Today” present on Monday. “And I don’t want to just take all those elements away from them just ’cause I can area my have children in.”

“Horizon” presently has a ranking of 43% on Rotten Tomatoes.

BBC wrote in their scathing overview that a motion picture “needs to have a plot, a bit of credible characterization, and a framework that ideally involves a commencing, center and conclude. ‘Horizon’ does not have any of people.”

Assortment slammed Costner’s movie as “meandering,” and stated it “seldom seems to aim in a apparent route,” while IndieWire mentioned, “These aren’t characters so considerably as the spokes of a plot in human variety, just about every of their storylines relocating as if being pulled by horses throughout the whole span of the American West.”

The Everyday Beast’s headline, meanwhile, declared the movie “a misogynistic, racist . . . mess” and critic Esther Zuckerman wrote, “I’m not sure why Costner did not turn this into the television task it so needs to be. Potentially he just required to one up ‘Yellowstone,’ the wildly well known Taylor Sheridan demonstrate, on which he performed John Dutton, and which he made a decision to depart. But as a cinematic expertise it is aggravating in several approaches.”

Costner has previously spoken about how “Horizon” is his passion job. He directed, co-wrote, generated and stars in the film, and he risked his residence to fund it with his have money. 

Set during the pre- and article-Civil War period in the American West, the film has an ensemble forged such as Costner, his son Hayes, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson and Jamie Campbell Bower. 

Costner mentioned about his son, “He’s a lovely boy, and he’s silent. And I have not shoved my small children into the enterprise.”

Hayes is a single of Costner’s 7 kids. The Oscar winner has Annie, 40, Lily, 37, and Joe, 36, with ex-wife Cindy Silva. He has a son, Liam, 26, with Bridget Rooney. And his 3 youngest youngsters — Cayden, 17, Hayes, 15, and Grace, 13 — are with ex-wife Christine Baumgartner, whom he divorced in February just after a messy break up. 

Costner’s son’s part in “Horizon” required just two months of filming, the “Yellowstone” star explained. 

“But, in a perception, it was a smaller component,” he explained. “I selfishly wished him with me for the 7 days, two weeks, he was with me. And we would drive to the set every single working day and he would whisper.”

Inspite of Hayes obtaining no performing experience, Costner praised his son’s effectiveness. 

“He didn’t have a whole lot of knowledge, but he’s truly stunning in the motion picture,” Costner said. 

“It’s a actually difficult scene. In the finish, there’s a nobility, there’s an absolute fatalness about it. It is what you really don’t want a son to do, and at the stop of the day, you are very pleased that he would make that option,” Costner additional.

Back in April, the “Yellowstone” star uncovered that the character he performs in the film served as inspiration for Hayes’ name.

“I named him just after the character I participate in in this. My character’s identify is Hayes Ellison,” he advised ET at the time. “And I named Hayes that character. So I was observing him mature up and I was imagining, ‘Man, I far better get with it and make this movie.’”

“Horizon: An American Saga” hits theaters June 28.