“What’s going on in this city, how cool is that, that people are flexing today?” Costner told the rapt audience Saturday, Oct. 18, at USF’s War Memorial Gym during an hour-long conversation as part of the school’s Silk Speaker Series. “It doesn’t matter whose side you’re on right now. We can all know what we feel, but at least we’re still able to flex. Continue to do that, make a difference. You really do count.

Kevin Costner, shown at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Feb. 7, 2025, appeared as part of the Silk Speaker Series at the University of San Francisco on Saturday, Oct. 18.

“If you don’t count yourself (in), that’s when you can count yourself out.”

The two-time Oscar-winner, a committed environmentalist whose politics might be considered left of center (he endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and Wyoming’s Liz Cheney for Congress in 2022), was a late replacement for actress Nicole Kidman, who postponed her USF appearance to April, citing a scheduling conflict.

His visit comes at a turbulent moment for for the 70-year-old actor, producer and director. A bombshell article in the Hollywood Reporter published Oct. 8 alleged on-set tensions, damaged professional relationships and an unwillingness to compromise on creative issues that led to his departure from the Paramount-produced Peacock series “Yellowstone” and has endangered his planned four-part Western film series “Horizon: An American Saga.”

On Thursday, Oct. 16, a judge in Los Angeles denied Costner’s request to toss out a stuntwoman’s sexual harassment and hostile workplace lawsuit, which alleges that she was “the victim of a violent unscripted, unscheduled rape scene” during the filming of the second “Horizon” movie with the lack of SAG-AFTRA mandated “intimacy or stunt coordination.” Costner has vigorously denied the allegations.

Still, after the first “Horizon” movie, which he self-financed in part, bombed at the box office in 2024, Costner has been trying to secure the funds to release the second installment and film parts three and four. To that end, the Hollywood Reporter noted he has been “giving paid keynote speeches at bakery and veterinarian conventions.”

And now USF.

Still, Costner put on a good show. Unlike any past speaker in the Silk series, including actor Jeremy Renner in August, Costner made an unusual entrance.

Instead of stepping up onto the stage from behind it through a black curtain, Costner entered from the rear doors and slow-walked through the audience to the stage, waving and shaking hands to a standing ovation. Despite a strict no photography policy, fans whipped out their cell phones and captured the moment.

During his chat, which was moderated by USF alum Brenna Malloy, a veteran television director and producer known work on major television dramas like the “9-1-1” franchises, Costner spoke of his childhood in Southern California, his drive to succeed in the movie business and offered insights to his four-decade-long career.

Costner didn’t directly mention the Hollywood Reporter story, but he did acknowledge that he is strongly opinionated.

“I do know that when you see my work, you see my work,” Costner said. “It’s not a committee. You know, I can be thought of as stubborn. I don’t actually think I am. What I do believe is, a movie is a patient that can’t speak for itself. The writer who writes a beautiful movie, someone has to protect the movie. And that means they have to be willing to fall away from trends.”

He referenced the 1990 best picture winner “Dances With Wolves,” which earned him Academy Awards as best director and producer; “The Bodyguard” (1992), in which he co-starred with Whitney Houston; and his various baseball movies including “Bull Durham” (1988), “Field of Dreams” (1989) and “For the Love of the Game” (1999).

In the latter film, Costner plays an aging pitcher making what is likely his last start and pitches a perfect game. As the game progresses, he reflects on his life and the mistakes he made, especially with his longtime girlfriend (Kelly Preston). He realizes that as he pitches the greatest game of his life, no one he loves is there to witness it.

“He weeps,” Costner recalled. “Now that’s not your normal sports movie, but for me it’s a normal moment to think that you reach the highest point in your life and no one is around you that you love and you’ll weep.”

Costner told fans, particularly the students in the auditorium, not to be that guy. Instead, he urged them to work to maintain friendships and family relationships throughout their lives.

“Hopefully you reach these high moments in your life with the people around you, your parents … and the people who you’ve loved the longest and the most will see you marry and they’ll see your children,” he said. “Nothing will equal that.”