Even though Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a far cry from one of the best movies of the '90s, it’s one of the top vintage Kevin Costner films. Now, it just got even better, because I learned that the star and one of his stuntmen went foraging for magic mushrooms before filming a sword fight for the 1991 film. And now I really need to go back and watch this scene...
While chatting with GQ, the actor and filmmaker shared the wild mini-saga that happened between him and a Robin Hood coworker while the rest of the cast and crew were out for lunch. The Bodyguard alum explained, that he was asked casually if he wanted to go looking for mushrooms in the nearby field (Costner mentioned the infamous field appears in the opening credits with a few boys running through it). Then, he recalled the conversation he had with the stuntman about going on this quest, saying:
He was the stunt guy playing the little boy, and he goes, ‘Hey, there’s some magic mushrooms out in this field,’ he goes ‘You want to go look for them?’ I said, ‘Okay, let’s go.’
This makes me start to think of all the downtime on movie and TV sets and how the cast and crew might spend it. I can’t imagine foraging of any kind is generally considered. Although the Dazed and Confused cast ate mushrooms together and went to a gun range, but, again, this is probably a very small and niche group of people exploring this activity while working.
The Dances with Wolves actor then continued to dive into the mind-altering adventure, noting they were the only two searching for the mushrooms. He also said that his stuntman had a lot more success than him on this quest, explaining:
After about the fifth one he found, I said, ‘Nick,’ I said, ‘How are you, how are you, I’m looking, how are you finding these mushrooms?’ He says, ‘Well, you have to eat one and it tells you where the rest of them are.’
It’s a pretty goofy and fitting exchange while hunting for magic mushrooms. The fact that Costner wasn’t having any luck while his friend had found five makes me start to wonder if there was actually any out there.
Then, it dawned on the Yellowstone star that he’d be sword fighting Alan Rickman an hour after this journey began, and he backed out of the mission, explaining:
And I thought, ‘I’m not eating a mushroom, Nick. We’re having a sword fight, Nick. You’ve eaten some mushrooms? ‘Cause we’re gonna be with swords in about an hour.’
It all seemed to work out since most of us are only learning the story now. However, I do now need to go back and see this scene that was filmed right after this wild adventure.
Overall, this is a pretty great story and helps me forget Yellowstone without John Dutton and Costner’s words about the series finale. It's also a good reminder that I need to go back and watch some of his older Westerns and movies.
The rewatch list is growing thanks to this bonkers story of Kevin Costner looking for magic mushrooms with a stuntman on the set of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. And you better believe I’ll be paying extra close attention to that sword fight now.
You should too, as Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves is available with VOD.
