This is kind of old news, but I’m playing catch up this week, so bear with me.
On Monday, rumors started flying that Kevin Costner had been cast in Zack Snyder’s reboot of Superman. It didn’t take very long before Latino Review reported that he would be playing Jonathan “Pa” Kent – Superman’s adoptive father.
I think this is a mistake. When I think of Costner, I don’t think of him as a father figure. Nor do I ascribe a nurturing moral center to his list of character attributes.
I think Costner would have been better utilized playing Clark Kent’s brassy Daily Planet Editor Perry White. It’s a bit part, sure. Probably not worth Costner’s time. But it’s a better fit.
Costner is one of those actors that everyone WANTS to like, but he’s got a bit of an a-hole streak in him. I put him in the same category that I put Hugh Grant in – an actor who tried to win people over with charm and good looks but who is ultimately more effective playing self-centered rouges.
I can easily see Costner wearing a vest, chewing on a pipe and barking orders at a grown up Clark Kent than I can see him wearing bib overalls, chewing on a wheat stalk and giving the teenage Superman advice about doin’ what’s right.
Costner has a slow, considerate nature in his performances that I think might have blinded Snyder to the opportunity right under his nose and made him think he was better for Pa Kent. But in my view, Perry White would have been the more interesting father figure for Costner to pursue.
What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below!
I like him as Pa Kent. Perry White needs to be more gruff and less charming than Costner. Yeah, maybe he could try to “act” or something but come on, this is a Zack Snyder movie we’re talking about.
You know, I hate to say it, but when I saw the news flying, I just read “Costner” and “Superman” and I automatically thought Perry White. Not until I saw this did I think or know it was Pa Kent.
T
Honestly, I can’t see him in either role. He is definitely not the sort of moral authority of mid-american waspyness that we ascribe to paw Kent, but I don’t think he has the fire and brimstone of the managing editor of a great metropolitan newspaper. I guess I’m a bit of a traditionalist where it comes to superman and am sad panda that they didn’t recast Routh, but that’s me.
Mow I COULD see him as Lex Luthor, he has that sort of oily intelligence about him, the sort of “a-hole streak” you mention. But again, that’s just me.
Luthor would be an interesting choice, but I think Costner is too genial to be ruthless. There’s a conflict in him which makes him interesting. But to play Luthor, you have to be a straight-out badass.
I guess I was thinking he was a better fit for Perry White because he’s capable of being bombastic. Some of the trial speeches he gave in JFK come to mind.