Kevin Costner jokingly denied that he was moved to tears by the 11-minute standing ovation he received at Cannes for the first part of his epic Civil War western, “Horizon: An American Saga.”
After host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned the emotional moment during Tuesday night’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Costner said he didn’t actually shed any tears, insisting he was merely “moved.”
“Right. Your eyes were just full. You were over-hydrated,” Kimmel replied.
The writer/actor/director also told the late night host why he wasn’t discouraged from tackling such a large project. “I don’t fall out of love that easy, when I just like something. I really believe in the movie experience,” Costner explained. “I’m kind of set in my ways … [it’s] a movie I made for myself.”
Ultimately, it seemed as though the Cannes audience liked what they saw.
“You never know how it’s going to be received. And then you get to Cannes and you stand there and they show everyone the movie,” Costner said. “I really didn’t have a sense what was going to happen. [The room] was very still for most of that, but I kind of interpreted that as they were kind of really leaning into it.”
“I actually started walking my life backwards for a second,” he added as Kimmel played a clip of the moment. “I kind of went back to the beginning and wondering how I even ended up in a place like that. We all have these dreams and I’ve had my own and I’ve taken some really big bites out of life and life has taken some pretty big ones out of me. But when they started the clap and they didn’t stop, I didn’t really know what … I didn’t f–king cry. I didn’t cry!”
The first part of “Horizon: An American Saga” opens in U.S. theaters on June 28. In addition to Costner, the film stars Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston, Michael Rooker, Jena Malone, Luke Wilson and Will Patton.
You can watch the full interview in the video, above.
