In early 1987, Kevin Costner was best known as the brash gunslinger Jake in the Lawrence Kasdan's Western Rhythm "Silverado." This was a remarkable role from the director, who dropped Costner from The Big Cold because his portrayal of the deceased Alex didn't play well with test audiences; Basically, the ensemble cast did such a great job of building the meaning of Alex that the then-unknown Costner couldn't live up to the legend. And while it was a nice gesture on Kasdan's part, Silverado didn't exactly catch fire at the box office in the summer of 1985.

So when Costner got the role of Plum of Elliott Ness in Brian De Palma's 1987 gangster saga The Untouchables, Paramount Pictures mounted a publicity offensive to sell the dashing 32-year-old actor as a major movie star who had finally arrived. Dressed in fine Giorgio Armani threads and armed with David Mamet's razor-sharp dialogue, Costner basically took batting practice with a cork bat. How could he not rise to full movie stardom like Ness with De Palma behind the camera and Sean Connery and Robert De Niro as his foils?

Most people will tell you that Costner delivered as expected, but he will counter that he could have done better. How so? Bringing to his role what his colleagues had in spades and he lacked: experience.

In an interview with GQ in 2024 tied with the release of his still-unfinished western epic Horizon: An American Saga, Costner opened up about the making of The Untouchables. Although the film is an undisputed classic that grossed $76 million in the US (good enough to finish 6th at the box office in 1987), Costner thinks he brought a knife to the fray.

"'The Untouchables' was a really well-written script," Costner said. "David Mamet wrote a really, really perfect script, and that's why I wanted to be a part of it. Brian De Palma directed it, and of course Sean Connery was in it, you know, Robert De Niro, and it was good. moment for me to be in that movie." It was a good moment, but it wasn't the right time for Costner. "I actually didn't think Sean was the type of guy to like me," he said. "I don't know why, but he did." He was good to me. And I learned a lot because my eyes were opened. I wish I was a better actor when I did The Untouchables, but I was where I was. .

Some critics were unkind to Costner back in 1987. wrote Roger Ebert"The script doesn't give him, and (Costner) doesn't provide any of the little character twists that might have made Ness an individual. I don't agree with this. Whatever we know about Ness's post-Prohibition life (eg he became a barely employable drunk) has no purchase in De Palma's film. History, in general, has no purchase. Do you think Ness led a liquor raid on the Canadian border with the Mounties? Pure fantasy. De Palma and Mamet's Ness is a scout because this formulaic gangster film demands it. Costner does as the cast and direction. If he had been more confident, he might have taken a shot at De Palma as he has done with other directors, and it would have gone badly. De Palma got it at the right timeand Costner was the right kind of naif. Here, as Malone would say to Sean Connery, the lesson ends.