Kevin, can you talk a little bit about career longevity? You have a bunch of interesting things that are happening this year. How have you maintained this career?
Kevin Costner: I think this might come as a surprise, but I didn’t make my first check until I was about 27, 28 years old. So I didn’t burst on the scene at 19 or 20. If you think about the guys in my category, I probably have about half the movies that they have if you added them up. You’d have to look at that. My wife and I had three little kids the last five years and I slowed down for about three to get them started. I’ve just had enough of that fucking minivan though now. I thought I have to go back to killing somebody for real or do some action movies because this is too tough. So I did. The last year and a half, after I did Hatfields & McCoys and I got on a horse again, I started to feel my love of acting. About a year and a half ago, I amassed a series of movies that are going to come out. That’s unusual for me to go back to back. Longevity for me is not a check, it’s a love. I’ve loved making movies. I’ve loved living my life outside the lines of Hollywood. When I come to work, I like to work. And I like to work with people that are very specific, and all the gentlemen up here are really specific people. I have been fortunate, blessed, loved, and it’s added up to 30 years.
Who do you play in 3 Days to Kill, which is coming out next month?
Kevin Costner: I play a guy who’s retired out of the CIA because of a sickness. I end up being recruited by them as a friend because they know my situation and it’s a way to almost make restitution monetarily for some things I’ve let go of. If I go ahead and kill some people, I can leave my fractured family at least with some money. It’s a little bent that way, but it’s really good fun.
Would you like to see William Harper, your character in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, spun off into his own franchise? Could he carry a movie on his own do you think?
Kevin Costner: I’d have to see the writing. I don’t know about that. God, I have so many other parts that probably could have been spun off. We’ll see about that. No one has even talked about that quite honestly. I’d have to see the writing. I always do.
Are you looking for something to direct right now?
Kevin Costner: I have something to direct. I just have to find somebody that’s willing to let me do it and do it my way. I just financed a movie that’s called Black and White that’s coming out. I did the whole thing myself. I think you might enjoy that.
What about your music? Are you still recording or touring with the band?
Kevin Costner: Yeah. We’re actually going to play Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel if I can get my voice back. I just lost my voice on Saturday and I’m really sitting here debating about do I make a phone call to them. What do I do? Because you can hear it and it’ll be my first time doing that with my band.
Chris, what was your first Jack Ryan experience? Did you see a film or read a book?
Chris Pine: I’ve always loved the series. I’ve always loved the spy genre fiction and films, so I was well versed with the Clancy universe having watched the films growing up. Looking at the character and re-watching the films, I think what I most enjoyed for me was the difference that I saw in how Alec portrayed the character and how Harrison portrayed the character.
With Alec in The Hunt for Red October, you have what Alec does really well which is this confident, intelligent, analytical man that knows what he knows and is not afraid to say it. With Harrison, with his tweed coat and his Volkswagon Jetta, he’s the humble intellect and he’s what Harrison does best which is the classic reluctant hero. I thought somewhere in that was a great way to begin looking at the character.
Kenneth, where did you get the inspiration to make this film?
Kenneth Branagh: I remember seeing The Hunt for Red October when I did my second movie, which was a thriller for Paramount and Mace was behind. And that was all of them. When this came along, it was a combination of things. I knew that Chris was involved, and I very much wanted to work with him and Kevin, and then Mace and Lorenzo’s track records and the chance to do something and to make a film where…I wanted to make a movie I’d grown up loving where a man passes on information to another man in a cinema, where two men meet on a bench at night in Moscow and talk about the fate of the world while a dog is distracting people from thinking that they’re doing anything nefarious, and combine an action thriller with working with great actors.
Kevin, at the end of the film, you refer to Jack Ryan as something of a Boy Scout, which reminds me of a number of your most famous roles, perhaps specifically Elliot Ness. I was curious how does it feel to suddenly step into the Sean Connery role?
Kevin Costner: I think the smarter directors do this a lot of times. They’ll take a supporting role and they’ll put a leading man in it because they either know how to inhabit the screen or inhabit it and nowhere was it better than when Sean Connery came in and played the little Irish street cop and you realized how formidable he was. I remember telling Sean at the time, I said, “Sean, this has got enough meat on the bone that you could win the Academy Award.” And Brian De Palma could have easily cast any character actor to bring up that Irish brogue, but he said no. He went arguably to the biggest star, the biggest star I’ve ever worked with in my life as I think Sean Connery was, to play this. And I think what happens is then he just knows how to hold onto the screen. And so, I have a feeling that that might have been swirling around in this genius’ head over there (referring to Kenneth Branagh) with what he wanted to do with William Harper. It was easy to support Chris.