Kevin Costner has put Hollywood on notice by taking home a massive payday for starring in the hit anti-woke western TV show “Yellowstone.”
In documents leaked to Variety, Costner’s paycheck is revealed to be a staggering $1.3 million.
“Yellowstone” has been a huge success for Paramount, with rave reviews from both viewers and critics.
Yet the hit show continues to be snubbed by the Hollywood awards circuit due to its traditional values and refusal to include “woke” messaging.
The industry publication did a report on how the television business has changed with streaming.
“It’s taken a little bit of a hit,” said one insider about actor’s pay.
“There’s a much deeper and steeper sliding scale between No. 1 or 2 on the call sheet and 3, 4, and 5.
“I think that had to do a lot with the oversaturation of salaries on shows.
“I think a lot of places are realizing that you can pay the one big star, but you can’t pay seven of them.”
“How do you make the streaming model work?” HBO/HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys told Variety.
“How do you make it profitable?
“That’s a big puzzle obviously.
“That affects a lot of the conversations we’re having.”
The report goes on to say that most top-level actors are getting between $600,000 and $800,000 per episode, with some of the top stars getting around $1 million.
And then you have Kevin Costner.
Costner is pulling in a reported $1.3M per episode.
The only other Hollywood star who can command the same $1.3m per episode is Mahershala Ali.
Kevin Costner is raking in $1.3 million per episode for #Yellowstone.
See how other TV stars are being paid: https://t.co/3x7jdSb9zK pic.twitter.com/Tvw7C2OfYE
— Variety (@Variety) July 20, 2022
Kevin Costner is also one of the good guys and he proved it when he gave an emotional tribute to the woman who gave him his big break in Hollywood earlier.
Ida Random, Costner’s longtime collaborator, recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Costner said if it wasn’t for Random, he would not be where he is today.
“For six years I’d been trying to break into Hollywood, and despite all my best efforts, I was just unable to get a SAG card,” Costner said.
“I’m singled out among the extras by casting director Elizabeth Leustig, who would later go on to become my casting director on Dances With Wolves.
“She walked me up to Ida, who I couldn’t help but notice on the set having been there for three days.
“She was really Annie Hall before there was Annie Hall, if you know what I mean.
“She always seemed to be around the camera and without notice, she would move into the set as if no one was watching, pick up a book, and move it.
“In fact, she would pick up anything – lamps, ashtrays, pictures.
“Anything that seemed to be bothering her she would just move it, maybe inches.
“Suddenly I find myself standing in front of her, and she’s looking at me, and it’s safe to say that I had gone from thinking she might be in trouble for moving things to now wondering if I was.
“She looked at me in a very real way, and I don’t know how else to describe it.
“I had no idea what I had done or what she was looking for.
“What she couldn’t have possibly known as I waited for her to speak was how shamefully desperate I was to be seen as an actor.
“After a long moment – an Ida Random moment, you’d have to see one to know one – she turned to Elizabeth, said ‘this works.'”
Because he fit in Random’s aesthetic vision for the scene, Costner got to deliver a single line – “Goodnight, Frances” – and it would change the trajectory of his career.
“I’ll never forget you, Ida,” Costner said.
“You changed my life that night.
“That’s what Ida does: She changes lives.
“She makes things better, sometimes by inches.
“She’s the director’s best friend and confidant.
“She’s the actor’s biggest cheerleader as she walks them through her perfect sets.
“You’re a filmmaker in every sense of the word, adding your most personal touch to the movies you call your paintings,” he said.
An Emotional Kevin Costner Pays Tribute To Production Designer Ida Random, The Woman Who “Would Change The Trajectory Of My Career” https://t.co/V0NphRk4X6
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) March 6, 2022
