Costner casts wide net for 'Swing Vote'

Costner started trying to make this new political comedy two years ago. It finally arrives in a summer full of comic book heroes and saturation news coverage of a real election. But he says he believes in the movie (and he's also a producer, so he has a financial stake), so he came to Atlanta recently to promote it.

Relaxing in a large leather chair in the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown, Costner, 53, was comfortable in cowboy boots, soft jeans and a black dress shirt, but he got a little prickly when I suggested that his character Bud was a bad father. We went on, though, to talk about his whole career making movies.

Q: The line between likable goof on the road to redemption and bad father is a fine one sometimes. What did you think of Bud?

A: I liked him. Most of us are complex. Not everybody is living the way you live. He's living in a trailer, he's not a PTA dad, he's not a soccer dad. He doesn't ask for your forgiveness. But he loves his daughter. You can see that. Most people, if they have a downhill slide, need a wake-up call. And they never get it. And he gets a wake-up call. It's very Capra-esque and I enjoy that. I loved him as a filmmaker.

Q: We think we want Capra-esque, but maybe we also think we're too sophisticated for it.

A: We do. You find yourself [in the movie] getting a lump in your throat. Where does that come from? Maybe the words speak for you. It's unlikely that Bud could speak for you but ... take "Field of Dreams" for instance. You have a non-athlete expressing beautifully what the sport of baseball means in a way an athlete never could in terms of it being timeless. It's a beautiful speech and it's classic because the non-athlete can articulate it. Maybe Bud can, in his own humble way, articulate how we're feeling.

Q: Have you ever seen the lists of movies that make men cry? It's always "Field of Dreams" and "Brian's Song" at the top. More guys I know talk about "Field of Dreams," and guys don't generally talk about movies.

A: That's it. "Field of Dreams" is about things that go unsaid, what's unsaid to your father. So when guys don't talk, it totally sucks them in and there's a moment when they can't catch their breath. I screened it for my friends and my roommate from college couldn't come out of the bathroom, he was sobbing. I could hear him; he could not get his breath.

Q: Is this the first time you've sung in a movie? [Costner sings in "Swing Vote," with his real-life band, Modern West.]

A: I did, actually, in "Bull Durham" and it got cut. It was a scene where I fight with Nuke [Tim Robbins]. That scene was originally where Crash [Costner's character] hung out at a [house of prostitution]. He's sitting at a piano playing "Unchained Melody" and I've got this 70-year-old [prostitute] sitting next to me with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and I'm singing, "Oh, my love, my darling. ..." It's a classic, classic scene.

And yet the [screening] audiences were asked what scene bothered them the most. And they didn't like that. So they reconstructed a scene where I hung out in a pool hall, another sign of a misspent youth. But I like the ambiguousness of things.

Q: How does playing music live differ from acting in terms of what you get out of it?

A: I like to perform. I'm a storyteller. I've worked for a long time to get a story to Broadway. I love musicals. There's a lot at stake in that moment [of playing live music] 'cause people are gonna judge you. I prefer that to having them just shake my hand, the autograph, the two-second encounter, which is not an authentic experience.

But to be with an audience for two hours, something's gonna happen. I like performing itself. I like acting, I like singing. Why? Its just in my DNA or something.

Q: Are you ever clicking through cable and you see a movie you've made, and you see it differently than you remember it?

A: I watched a little bit of "Open Range" and I couldn't remember directing it. OK, where am I gonna put the camera next? But would I do things different? I would do things different in "Dances [With Wolves]." All movies are pretty flawed. You end up having to turn them over sometimes before you'd like to. Sometimes it's not in my control. They're making a [release] date rather than making a statement. I don't rail against it, it's just the reality.

Q: Your next movie is called "The New Daughter"?

A: It's a horror movie and I've never been in one. I thought I would give that a try and find out why you never get out of the scary house when it's so scary. The sure thing has never been a very appealing thing to me. And it's not because I see myself as a very big risk taker. Having the ability to go make films for people, that's not that big a risk. So why don't you swing for the fences in every genre and see if you can pull something off you're not sure you can?

Q: And if something ends up not working, does it bother you?

A: When you say not working, the ultimate goddess is: Is it profitable? Most of my movies are profitable. Are they big opening weekends? Maybe not. But they go on to be profitable 'cause people manage to find them. The ego is probably what gets you into the most trouble. Then you want to chase being No. 1 at the box office. That's not the apple to reach for, but your ego wants it.

Q: Your five greatest movies, the ones that will be in the lead of your obituary, were not franchise movies or No. 1 box-office movies.

A: "No Way Out" was a movie in turnaround. "Field of Dreams" was not gonna be made. "Bull Durham" was not gonna be made. "Dances" I know for sure was not gonna be made. "Tin Cup," "JFK," "Open Range," they were problematic movies. I just put 'em out there. I don't think they're cutting edge. I don't think they're avant-garde.

Q: Does the timing, coming out in August with a real election going on, hurt or help "Swing Vote"?

A: I don't know. I didn't time it. I don't know if voter fatigue is gonna be a problem or if it's good timing. All I can control is this movie is exactly what it is. Is this a perfect movie? I don't think so. But I think it's perfectly honest.