Kevin Costner Is ‘So Tired’ of People Being ‘So Delicate’ About Indigenous Representation

Kevin Costner is speaking out on the “limited” discussions surrounding Indigenous representation in modern Westerns.

Costner, who wrote, directed, produced, and starred in “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1,” told Entertainment Weekly that complex portrayals of Native American people are necessary onscreen.

“I’m just so tired of everybody trying to be so delicate about things,” Costner said. “[The Native Americans] were pissed [about settlers]. I don’t feel like I have to [hold someone’s hand]. ‘Oh my God, here we go again. Indians are the bad guys.’ Of course, they’re not the bad guys. But if you’re going to be limited, if people aren’t willing to watch how something unfolds, I don’t know what to say.”

“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” includes Native American tribesman Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) leading a massacre against settlers in an effort to fight and protect his land.

“I’m not interested in spoon-feeding people,” Costner continued. “The reality is it was one tent too many, and the [Apache] went down there, and they tried to wipe the [settlers] out. Their anger is they’re not able to hunt. They have to go and interact with tribes when they had long ago settled those issues.”

Costner previously starred in and directed 1990’s “Dances With Wolves” with the cooperation of the Lakota people. The filmmaker explained that he wanted to show the conflict between tribes and settlers amid the Westward expansion.

“That was brought about because of those tents [of settlers],” the former “Yellowstone” actor said. “Those people can’t cross the river there, so they have to go to the left, or they have to go to the right, and it brings in that contact with other tribes.”

Costner told IndieWire on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast that his passion for Westerns is deeply rooted in the genre’s core attributes and setting.

“I love my gunfights, but I’m not in a rush to get to them,” Costner said. “I’m in love with the language, and I think it informs [the action]. I’m willing to take my time saying the lines I want against these big spaces.”

However, according to Costner, the genre does have some limitations, which he tried to curb with a particular emotional sequence in “Horizon.”

“That scene actually has three different emotions, and that’s what I think is missing in the majority of Westerns,” Costner said of a scene in which settler characters are confronted with their impending mortality. “It’s not that I’m trying to set the record straight, it’s just that they can be too simple for me.”