Kevin Costner, who just turned 60 earlier this week, can do a lot of things.
“I can make a love story. I can make the American baseball movie. I can make the political thriller, the Western, the romantic comedy. And sometimes you get to make a movie about the moments that you’re living,” he told The Huffington Post Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Costner’s newest film, “Black or White,” is a family drama centered around a custody battle, but the complexities of race are examined at every turn.
“We are living in this moment,” he continued, referring to heightened discussions and displays of racial tension in the country. “[The film] wasn’t timed for any of these things, it was made before some of these seminal moments that have seemed have caught our attention. But I have been very aware of race for a long time. And I never saw a movie that dealt with it the way that this did. That’s the hope. That it gets under your fingernails.”
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“It looks at where we are at with race today and how race gets used sometimes as a tool. That’s not to say that it’s not there — the problems with race are real — but sometimes it can be used when it’s not appropriate. And it holds us back.”
Adding that he would never have made this movie if it felt heavy-handed, Costner says that instead, he made a movie that talked out loud to him.
“I have a real, good strong instinct about what I like. I don’t question myself. I then move to the next step, which is will other people also feel that way? But for this one, that wasn’t a big leap,” he said. “People enjoy the truth. And they enjoy language that maybe redefines how they think. This movie did that for me.”
“Black or White” opens in theaters Jan. 30.
