Kevin Costner Shot Down Chris Hemsworth From Being Cast in His New Movie

Chris Hemsworth might have a lot of power as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it turns out that wasn’t enough to land him a role he desperately wanted in a Kevin Costner movie. Hemsworth recently opened up and told Entertainment Tonight about the situation, revealing that the role ultimately went to Costner himself.

“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 ET’s Kevin Frazier. “I’d love [to have] him as a director. I was like, ‘Godd—it!’ [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.”

Hemsworth went on to explain that the movie is “a small story about a man and a woman” that he finds to be “abstract and interesting.” He said, “It’s better seen in his wheelhouse for sure, as far as the kind of Western environment. There’s horses involved, he’s a horse wrangler, and my wife read it and loves horses. We have 10 or 11 horses back home and so she’s like, ‘You’ve got to do this.’”

ET later caught up to Costner to ask him about the situation, and he joked that Hemsworth would have to “wait his turn,” because “as long as I’m still young enough to play it, I’ll play it.”

While he wasn’t ready to give up a role to Hemsworth yet, the did have a lot of kind things to say about his Hollywood peer. “He’s so handsome and he’s so good,” Costner said. “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.”