St. George • However much money the next installment of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon” franchise makes, Utahns who rubbed shoulders with the actor and director during the making of the film say the experience was priceless.
For some, what stood out about the making of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2,” was Costner’s kindness to Hollywood stars and extras alike.
For others, it was singing and dancing with Costner by firelight and listening to him regale the cast about his love for Utah and the state’s moviemaking past.
Whatever the reason, the Utah actors and others involved in the second chapter of the four-part series, most of which was filmed in Washington County, agree that the making of the epic Western defied expectations and was not the same old song and dance.
An immersive experience
Utah actor Alex Nibley, who plays the character Martin Pine, a member of a wagon train wending its way west in the movie, said it became apparent to the cast early on that they were taking part in something extraordinary. He remembers arriving on location for a costume fitting, which normally takes a half-hour or less.
Instead, costume designer Lisa Lovaas marched him into a room filled with photos of more than 100 “Horizon” characters in 1860s-vintage outfits and had him try on a whole rack of handmade costumes before choosing the best fit.
“When I got dressed, I turned around, looked in the mirror and there was my great-great grandfather, Alexander Naibaur, staring back at me,” Nibley said about his ancestor, a dentist by trade who made pioneer-prophet Brigham Young’s dentures.
Rehearsals also set “Horizon” apart. Hallie Purser, an Orem resident who played Evie Kettridge on the same wagon train as Nibley, said actors typically learn their lines at home and do a quick run-through on the set before filming begins.
Costner, though, invited all the wagon train cast to spend a week with him rehearsing their lines at a home he was renting north of St. George. They also learned how to ride horses and drive wagons.
Even the filming went beyond the typical Hollywood feel.
Naomi Winder, who is cast as Martha Kittredge, Purser’s movie sibling in “Horizon,” said Costner also ensured crew members and equipment were not in the actors’ sightlines when filming to help the cast fully immerse themselves in the story.
“We were looking at the world we were supposed to be in rather than a bunch of crew members,” said Winder, who lives in Salt Lake City. “I’ve never had a director do that.”
Purser remembers her first meeting with the famed actor.
“When I walked on the set I was so nervous that I was shaking because I had never met a celebrity before,” she said. “But he gave me a hug and told me how excited he was to work with me. I was shocked how welcoming he was to a Utah actor.”
Costner’s kindness was not limited to established stars or actors with speaking roles but also extended to extras. Typically, Nibley explained, directors never deign to talk to extras on set. That responsibility falls to the “second-second assistant director,” who is tasked with telling background actors where to stand and what to do.
But Nibley said Costner often spent an inordinate amount of time with extras, giving them the backstory of an upcoming scene, talking about their motivation and explaining what he wanted them to do, just as “he would do with a Hollywood star.”
Nibley remembers standing one day next to Oscar-nominated Kathleen Quinlan, who plays his wife, Annie Pine, in the movie, and actor Luke Wilson, who stars as the wagon master, and marveling at Costner mingling with the extras.
“I turned to [the two actors] and asked, ‘Have you ever seen a director work with extras like this before?’ ” Nibley said. “They just shook their heads. It was truly extraordinary.”
Master of his craft
(Joyce Kelly) Kevin Costner stops by a booth to chat with residents and pick up a free cinnamon roll during the filming of “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2” in Hurricane.
Equally remarkable, Nibley and others noted, was Costner’s complete mastery of the material and every character. James V. D’Arc, Utah’s preeminent movie historian, remembers spending the entire day with Costner on set and never seeing him glance at the script.
Said Nibley: “It’s difficult for directors to hold all the details for a single 90-minute feature film in their head. But Kevin was holding four three-hour movies in his head and he knew every detail of every shot that we were working on. I’ve never seen that before.”
One of Nibley’s fondest memories occurred during filming on the Santa Clara River on the Shivwits Band of Paiutes’ reservation west of St. George. Accompanied by her parents, a 10-year-old Paiute girl visited the set and read a speech formally welcoming the cast and crew to the reservation.
Costner responded by inviting the crowd of extras on the site, many of them children in frontier-era clothes, to come forward and stand opposite the Paiute child clad in native dress.
“Kevin gestured to them and said, ‘This is the way it should have been, meeting in friendship and welcoming one another rather than engaging in conflict and fighting,’” Nibley said. “It was very moving.”
For her part, Purser is impressed by the care Costner took in highlighting women in the second film, about the hardships they faced and the husbands and children they lost.
“We see a lot in the second [movie] about the plight of women and how they were survivors,” the Utah Valley University graduate said. “Kevin made it clear that this is an important part of the history that he wanted to share.”
Joyce Kelly, sales manager for the Greater Zion Convention and Tourism Office who helped Costner scout locations, was impressed by the director’s ability to connect with local residents. During filming near a trailhead in Hurricane, some residents set up a table emblazoned with a sign “If you build it, they will come,” a nod to Costner’s movie “Field of Dreams,” and gave cinnamon rolls to the cast and crew.
“So [Costner] stopped by, got a cinnamon roll, talked with everyone and posed for pictures,” she said. “He doesn’t brush people off. He really connects with them, which speaks to the kind of person he is.”
Night moves and songs
On a night shoot about 1:30 a.m., Purser recalled, a bit bored as everyone waited for the crew to set fire to a wagon, she and Winder began singing “Utah...This Is the Place.” Standing nearby and clearly amused, British actor Ella Hunt asked the pair to turn around and face the light as they sang the state anthem.
“It took a few seconds for us to realize that Kevin was standing there smiling and laughing at us,” Purser said. “But as nervous as we were, we kept on singing. And he thought it was so sweet that he sang a song while me, Naomi and actor Isabelle Fuhrman held hands and danced in a circle around him. It was a surreal and magical moment.”
On another occasion, Purser remembers, Costner was sitting under a canopy at his trailer telling the actors about how much he loved Utah and its landscapes.
“He turned to me and said he wanted to share something with us,” she said. “He then took out a recording device and played ‘Find Your Way,’ a song he and his band, Modern West, recorded about finding your path, finding resolutions to hardships, and keeping hope alive and your eyes on the horizon. To me, that song serves as an anthem for ‘Horizon.’ Being a part of the movie has been a life-changing experience.”
The series’s second installment premiered February 7 at the 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival to mixed reviews. Chapter 2 is expected to debut in theaters later this year, but an exact release has not been announced.
