Star of the 1995 box office disaster claims that it is a favourite among fans and was a ‘joy’ to work on

While Waterworld might have a firm place in the list of Hollywood’s most notorious flops, the film’s star Kevin Costner claims that it holds a special place for fans worldwide.

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Blogger Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere contacted the actor to apologise for helping to trash the film on its release in 1995, when he worked for Entertainment Weekly.

“I’m not sure you know how beloved the movie is around the world,” Costner replied. “Being hard [on a film] is really easy if you don’t know the underbelly of what [went into it]. When you do know the forensics of a movie – the participation and decisions of others that one has to stand in front of – you can’t help but see it differently.”

Costner went on to describe his own experience of working on the film and how its failure at the box office didn’t affect his pride for his work.

“I know that people might think of Waterworld as a low point for me,” he said. “It wasn’t. It could have had a better, more obvious outcome. The thing I know is that I never had to stand taller for a movie when most were going the other way. The movie with all its imperfections was a joy for me … a joy to look back upon and to have participated in.”

At the time of its release, Waterworld was the most expensive film ever made, with an estimated budget of $175m. It told the tale of a post-apocalyptic world and a Mad Max-esque fight for survival. It only grossed $88m at the US box office but it did receive a token Oscar nomination for best sound mixing.



• This article was amended on Wednesday 19 August 2015. We mistakenly said that Kevin Costner starred in and directed Waterworld. He was the star, but the film was directed by Kevin Reynolds. This has been corrected.

