Kevin Costner dodged questions about Luke Grimes after it was revealed the former Yellowstone costars haven’t been in contact.
After not appearing in the second half of season 5 of Yellowstone, Costner, 69, was asked on Tuesday, December 17, what he thought about the finale, to which he told the Daily Mail, “I’m not thinking about [the Yellowstone finale]. I don’t think I’ve given it any thoughts, we’ll just let it go.”
Costner was also asked about Grimes’ recent comments that the pair aren’t in touch. “No. We are done talking,” he replied to the photographer.
Earlier that day, Grimes, 40, had told Men’s Health MH Flex, “I haven’t talked to him since,It’s not a case of any hard feelings or anything. It’s just, he’s Kevin Costner.”
Yellowstone is known for its over-the-top plot lines and complicated family drama, but the show’s cast and crew has also been involved in plenty of offscreen controversy over the years. Since the Paramount Network series premiered in June 2018, actors along with cocreator Taylor Sheridan have fended off criticism that the show is written with […]
Grimes insisted that there was no tension between him and Costner, adding, “He’s a big deal. I do have his phone number — I just don’t feel like it’s my place to reach out. He can reach out to me if he wants to.”
Grimes, however, couldn’t deny that Costner’s decision to leave the show caused some distance.
“None of us saw it coming the way it did, and obviously there was news about possible blowups behind the scenes or whatever,” he continued. “But just like in life, man, these things happen, they happen fast, and they’re not predictable.”
Grimes subsequently compared the experience to a personal loss. “I lost my father a few years ago. It happened fast, and it was not the way that you would think that that would happen,” he recalled. “In life, these things happen and then people have to start making decisions. And in our little Yellowstone world, that helped ramp the show up into a boil.”
Rumors about Costner’s future on Yellowstone originally surfaced in 2023 amid reports of tension between him and creator Taylor Sheridan. Costner ultimately didn’t return for the last batch of episodes but denied it was due to issues with Sheridan, 54.
“I have taken a beating from those f–king guys and I know a lot of times where it’s coming from,” he told Deadline in May. “I just elected not to get into that. But if you know me well enough, I made Yellowstone the first priority, and to insinuate anything else would be wrong. I did not initiate any of those things. They did.”
Costner continued, “I left exactly when they wanted, and it made it hard on me. It turns out they didn’t have the scripts for 5B. They needed four more days just to complete the first eight episodes. I left early to give them what they needed to have a complete eight, and I felt bad that the audience didn’t get 10.”
Kevin Costner isn’t on Yellowstone anymore, but he still has some thoughts about the direction the show took his character, John Dutton, following his exit. The Oscar winner confirmed his departure from the Paramount Network drama in June 2024 following months of speculation about whether he would appear in the final episodes of season 5. […]
Sheridan has also maintained that there was no major drama between him and Costner.
“My opinion of Kevin as an actor hasn’t altered,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in June 2023 when asked about speculation that he and Costner were on the outs. “His creation of John Dutton is symbolic and powerful — and I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone.”
During the interview, Sheridan hinted that Costner’s movie Horizon: An American Saga played a role in John Dutton’s story coming to an end. (The family patriarch was killed off in a November episode, which Costner also says he hasn’t watched.)
“Once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame,” Sheridan noted at the time. “He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. [Horizon] seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
