It took years of winning performances and a ton of fan-fueled complaining online, but Yellowstone finally achieved a major awards win in the form of Kevin Costner landing the trophy for Best Actor in a Drama Series at this year’s Golden Globes. He wasn’t able to make it to the ceremony in January, and was only recently delivered the actual award. The esteemed actor shared a thankful video in which he reflected on the win, but did so in a way that avoided referencing the show and his co-stars, and while in the midst of a potential Yellowstone controversy involving Costner’s alleged scheduling conflicts and complaints.
Kevin Costner took to Instagram to share his appreciation-filled video, which kinda sits up there with some of the bougie-est unboxing videos available online. (Hopefully he’ll start unboxing super-expensive makeup sets and more over time, but not really.) But while the Oscar winner and his wife had to celebrate at home with a makeshift celebration involving their kiddos — “they stood up and cheered” whenever his name was called — he wanted to share the video with, as he put it:
For all the people who have supported me for the Golden Globes, which I was so happy. I’ve known them a long time, that international community, and they’ve always been very kind to me. And I couldn’t be there, but this is the award so I’m going to just open in front of all my friends out there.
Upon opening the box, he peeped out the presenter’s card with the nominations and the winner’s name, and randomly noted that he could say the names of the other actors listed, but then moved along. And that was the point where, at least to me, it became that much more noticeable that Costner seemed to purposefully avoid name-checking any specific people or projects outside of his family.
To that end, he indeed went the rest of the video without saying “Yellowstone” or mentioning anything involving the show. But you know what did get mentioned? Movies. Not TV, but movies. Which feels all the more pointed, considering his commitments to Taylor Sheridan’s neo-western are clashing with the filming window for the second entry in his epic western Horizon films, for which at least two of his former Yellowstone co-stars have been cast. In his words:
When you first come to Hollywood, you just wanted to get your first job, and you see these things, and you even wonder if you’re ever gonna get in a room like that. It feels really good to have this. There’s no substitute for being there, but my wife made a night of it for us and all those balloons. And now I’m holding it for everybody who supported me, for the Hollywood Foreign Press for thinking enough of what I did this year. It’s good to… I’m so glad I found the movies in my life. They’ve made a difference. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t found the movies. Thank you to everyone.
For those who might not be all caught up, Kevin Costner jumping back into the director’s chair for Horizon put a limit on how much he was able to film for Yellowstone during the first half of Season 5, which is why John Dutton’s storyline was so limited in scope compared to previous years. As well, it was reported that he desired only a ten-day filming stretch for the back half of the season, which caused strife with franchise co-creator Taylor Sheridan, a stickler for details to say the least.
Those rumors were buffered by additional reports that Sheridan and other execs were in conversations with Matthew McConaughey to join the Yellowstone universe for a spinoff that would involve multiple cast members from the flagship series. The idea there, which is bolstered by the success of 1883 and 1923 (available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription), is for the True Detective vet to head up a samey drama that would allow Paramount Network to sidestep its Peacock streaming agreements, so long as the title Yellowstone isn’t used.
While it’s still unclear where things are going for now, the fact that Kevin Costner didn’t bring the show up at all in his video is still odd. But it didn’t stop Yellowstone’s IG page from sending a congratulatory comment, with co-star Breckin Merrill also honoring Costner’s win. But that’s about it, at least as far as I could tell.
Check out Costner’s video post below!
Yellowstone won’t be back on Paramount Network until the summer, at which point this behind-the-scenes drama will hopefully have been worked out. Until then, don’t forget to check out the Dutton family’s hectic backstory on Paramount+’s 1923.
