Jamie Campbell Bower Praises Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’ Script as ‘Electric’

NEW YORK, Aug. 23 (UPI) — Jamie Campbell Bower was instantly drawn to Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 after reading Kevin Costner’s screenplay for the epic western.

“I’m always looking for incredible characters and incredible writing,” Bower, 35, shared in a recent Zoom interview with UPI.

“I’ve been blessed that whatever has come my way has felt like that, and this is no exception to me,” he continued. “I read this script and it was electric. I was absolutely buzzing from it and I just knew I wanted to be a part of it, and it just felt right.”

The first movie in the planned three-western series premieres on Max this Friday.

The film explores various groups during the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West by Europeans on lands held by Indigenous people in the 19th century.

Costner wrote, directed, and stars in the film as horse trader Hayes Ellison. The ensemble cast also includes Sienna Miller, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Danny Huston, Tom Payne, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, and Wasé Winyan Chief.

Hayes and Bower’s character, outlaw Caleb Sykes, come into conflict when Hayes heroically involves himself in some old Sykes family business.

Bower was elated to hear Costner’s praise for his performance during a press conference.

“I love Kevin Costner as a person,” Bower said. “I love Kevin Costner the actor. I love Kevin Costner the director. To be given that level of praise is heart-warming, and I don’t often know what to do with it.”

One of the film’s most thrilling scenes is a showdown between Caleb and Hayes as they hike up a steep hill. While Caleb is ranting, Hayes remains mostly silent, conserving his energy.

“Physically, it was fine for me,” Bower noted. “I run, so I wasn’t too out of breath when we were doing it. I do also really enjoy physical work on camera. I find it really fun.”

The scene has its emotional notes as well, with power dynamics between the two characters starting to shift.

“There were these great moments of magic we were making,” Bower said. “You always hope for those as an actor, but they can’t be scripted, really, and you don’t know if they’re going to happen all the time. You give 100% of yourself always, but sometimes an extra 50% comes in from out of nowhere and that’s where the magic is, and we were lucky. We had those within that scene.”

Bower described Caleb not as a villain, but more of a “broken and traumatized” man who appears to be trying to settle old grudges.

“One of the things that I really latched on to with him was that you see the family dynamic that he has, particularly, with his [abusive] mother very early on in the film and the way in which she treats him physically,” Bower explained.

The Sykes family is not as loving as they could be, the actor pointed out.

“There’s a lot of learned behavior for him within that, and then you kind of build on that,” he said. “So, what does that create? It creates a level of fear, and what does fear turn into? Fear turns into hate. It turns into resentment and I think Caleb constantly is trying to one-up himself in any social situation that he finds himself in because, for him, the idea of control means that A, he’s the toughest and the baddest, and B, there’s a level of safety within that.”