American actor Kevin Costner shed light on his decision to depart from the TV series, ‘Yellowstone’. The 68-year-old actor testified Friday during a child support hearing in Santa Barbara, California amid his ongoing divorce from estranged wife Christine Baumgartner. While on the stand, he shared that a “long, hard-fought negotiation” about splitting season 5 into two parts was behind his decision to leave the Paramount Network series, reported People.
Costner claimed that he needed to concentrate on his own Western epic, the four-part film series ‘Horizon: An American Saga’, because filming ‘Yellowstone’ twice a year wasn't feasible. Costner said he “changed” his schedule to shoot the first part of season 5, adding, “That’s a big deal in this world.”
He noted there were “no scripts written” for the second part of season 5 and “they still hadn’t finished” the first part of the season at the time. They decided to do “pay or play” which didn’t work and he was set to receive $12 million for each part of season 5, according to People.
Costner expressed a desire to return for the sixth season of the Western series but “I couldn’t help them any more. We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons, there were issues with the creative…”
As per People, before ultimately walking away, the actor said he made one last effort to come back and told his representatives “Have them pay me whatever number, we came up with a number, and they [Yellowstone] walked away.” He said on the stand he believed that number was $12 million.
“I’ve been told it’s a little disappointing that [it’s] the #1 show on TV, I’m not participating,” he added.
When asked if he will receive a payout from the second part of ‘Yellowstone’ season 5, he responded, “I will probably go to court over it.”
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