Kevin Costner turned down Chris Hemsworth to cast himself in new romance movie

Chris Hemsworth has revealed that he was recently turned down from leading a Kevin Costner-directed project, after Costner decided to cast himself in the role instead.

“There was a movie, a script that I’d read and loved and was like, ‘I want to get that,’ and then someone said, ‘Kevin Costner has that [role],’” Hemsworth told Entertainment Tonight.

“I’d love [to have] him as a director. I was like, ‘Goddamnit!’ [I spent] an hour the other day trying to convince him, and he was like, ‘I’m doing it, kid.’ Didn’t work. I didn’t get the part.”

Without giving away too much, the Thor star, 40, described the movie as “abstract and interesting... a small story about a man and a woman”.

He said that “there were horses involved” in the movie because the character is a “horse wrangler”, which is partly why he wanted to join the project.

“My wife read [the script] and loves horses,” Hemsworth added. “We have 10 or 11 horses back home, and so she’s like, ‘You’ve got to do this.’”

Asked about denying Hemsworth the role, Costner joked to ET: “Chris – he’s starting something on me.

“It’s a love story, but as long as I’m still young enough to play it, I’ll play it. Chris will have to wait his turn.

“[Hemsworth]’s so handsome, and he’s so good. He’s going to have to go find his [own] love story. [But] I’m glad he likes this one. If I reach a moment where I [don’t] think I could do that, I would [reach out]. He’s certainly one of our great leading men right now.”

Costner currently has four upcoming projects, according to IMDb, two of which are installments of his Western epic Horizon. It was announced last week that Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 would premiere at next month’s Cannes Film Festival.

Directed by and starring Costner, the two-part Western will also see the acting debut of the Yellowstone actor’s 15-year-old son Hayes.

“I kind of did it on purpose, so he could be hanging out with me,” Costner told People of casting his son. “And the same thing for Cayden, same thing for Grace. I’m like any other parent, I’m trying to figure out, like, ‘This is really neat. You should come be with me.’”

Costner, 69, has seven children, three of whom – Lily, Joe and Annie – he shares with his first wife, Cindy Costner. He shares another son, Liam, with Bridget Rooney, whom he dated after divorcing Cindy in 1994. In 2004, he remarried actor Christine Baumgartner, but the couple have since divorced earlier this year. The ex-couple share three children: Cayden Wyatt, Logan Hayes and Grace.