Kevin Costner admits he “makes movies for men” but only ever on one condition

Kevin Costner’s career has been dominated with male-skewing projects, but the writer and director of Horzion: An American Saga – Chapter 1 has made sure to keep a spotlight on the stories of women, too.

Costner’s filmography was built upon Westerns, baseball, and big-scale extravaganzas. This – combined with his run as the hard-headed, no-nonsense patriarch in Yellowstone – means the majority of his fanbase is comprised of men.

And Costner knows it, too. On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Horizon: An American Saga mastermind confirmed that his projects appeal to a very particular audience. However, there’s always one condition that comes with that; the inclusion of strong female characters.

“I make movies for men,” Costner said. “That’s what I do. But I won’t make a movie unless I have strong women characters, and that’s how I’ve conducted my career. And I think that’s why I have a good following. I thank you women for dragging your men here. It was a Western, after all.”

The addition of female characters in his movies is something that Costner claims to take into consideration from the get-go. In Horizon, it simply made sense to include the likes of Sienna Miller’s Frances and Jena Malone’s Lucy when detailing the many stories of settlers in the West.

“When you start writing, you go, ‘Where’s the woman?’ It just drove the story in every plot line,” he said. “It just seemed to me to be so easy. I mean, I just hardly couldn’t conceive of a scene that didn’t involve women or a young girl raised by a strong woman.”

Horizon explores the stories of multiple characters, from travelers on a wagon trail to mothers on the run. At three hours and one minute long, it’s a hefty epic by any means. While the first installment has only just arrived, audiences won’t have long to wait until Chapter 2, which arrives on August 16, 2024.

At the time of writing, Chapter 1 is sitting at 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 70% Audience score.

For more, check out how to watch Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1. You can also check out all the Yellowstone cameos in Horizon. Or, find out how to watch every Kevin Costner Western.