Although he had made a few B-movies and garnered several small, often uncredited roles, director Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 classic film The Big Chill was going to be Kevin Costner's big break into the A-list acting set. Sharing the screen with such acting luminaries as Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and JoBeth Williams meant Costner would be noticed by Hollywood insiders and the general public. For all intents and purposes, he felt he had arrived. Costner would portray Alex -- a member of a thirtysomething group of old college friends -- a man who just didn't do as well in life as his pals despite being the brightest among them. After Alex's death (at his own hands) his one-time friends gather together for his funeral to reminisce about their fun, hedonistic college days together, get reacquainted with each other and speculate about the idealism they once all felt when they were young.

On the Atlanta, Georgia and Beaufort, South Carolina location sets, Costner was slated to film a number of flashback sequences, the cause for Alex's early demise and the tear-inducing funeral sequences. After the film wrapped, Kasdan began the task of editing The Big Chill. As Kasdan was nearly finished work on the 105 minute film, the director knew he needed to make a call to Costner. To keep the film under the two hour mark, it seems that Kasdan had to leave most of Costner's work on the cutting room floor, except for one scene. If you look really quick during the funeral sequence, you can see Costner laying in the coffin. "I didn't want Kevin to find out he wasn't in the film by reading it in the trade papers or by someone who had seen it," remembers Kasdan. "So, I called Kevin up to give him the bad news. When I told him, I could tell that he was disappointed about it, but he didn't throw a fit, yell or call me names. I told him I was sorry, and I would make it up to him."
 
"I think my heart stopped when he (Kasdan) told me the news," the multiple Oscar-winning Costner recalls, several years later. "He was really sorry about it. He couldn't apologize enough. I kind of felt bad for him. And when he said, 'I'll make it up to you, I promise.' I believed him. I knew I could trust him at his word. It would just be a matter of time before we worked together again."
 
It would take a few months -- after The Big Chill became a massive box office hit -- for Kasdan to ring up Costner with an offer to costar in the high-spirited Western Silverado. "Kasdan called me and said, 'I told you I would make it up to you, and guess what, it's a Western," explains Costner, who would win his Academy Awards for his work on the Western epic, Dances With Wolves. "I don't think I let him finish his sentence, because I was so excited that I quickly told him to count me in. He knew I loved Westerns, and was aching to be in one, so he was more than making up for The Big Chill in my mind -- in a big way."
 
Beginning in November, 1984, filming for Silverado commenced in and around Abiquiu, New Mexico -- on a massive town-of-Silverado set that has since been used in such movies as Young Guns, Wyatt Earp, Last Man Standing, Lonesome Dove, All the Pretty Horses and Wild Wild West.  Silverado is an action-packed Western that hits the cinematic bullseye in every aspect. Well-written, visually-compelling and featuring a cast of A-plus performances from its four leading men -- Costner, Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn and Danny Glover. In 1880, the quintet of gunslingers cross paths while they are all heading to the sleepy, seemingly crime-free town of Silverado. However, the town of Silverado is not as peaceful and care-free as many would like to think. While, Jake, Paden, Emmett and Mal have been away, Silverado has been invaded and is being run by a corrupt sheriff (Cleese) and his deadly posse. It's time for justice to be brought back to Silverado, and these four guys have what it takes to right all the wrongs.
 
Released on July 10, 1985 (after a 96-day shooting schedule), Silverado would become an instant hit and shoot open the door for a whole new crop of modern-day, Hollywood Western hits like Unforgiven, Young Guns, Wyatt Earp and others. "I can't say that I am happy that I was cut out of The Big Chill, but I'm just glad that Larry Kasdan is a man that keeps his word," Costner fondly admits. "He really did make Westerns cool again. For a while, no one would touch them with a ten-foot-pole, but thanks in part to Silverado, I've gotten to do Dances With Wolves and Wyatt Earp, Clint (Eastwood) has made Pale Rider and Unforgiven and other new filmmakers have been given the chance to do Western-influenced films or outright Westerns. I think when people look back at the history of the Western, Silverado will be noted as an important film for the genre. What I'm saying, is that it was an important film for me," he concludes with a chuckle.

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By: Earl Dittman

You can watch Silverado now in the Global Movies section.