In LET HIM GO, Kevin Costner makes his return to the big screen as George Blackledge, a father dealing with the death of his son. In addition to coming to terms with that loss, he has to contend with being unable to see his grandchild, as his son's widow married into a menacing off-the-grid clan in the Dakotas. So George and his wife Margaret (Diane Lane) leave their ranch in Montana to rescue their grandson.
George Blackledge is not what you would call a talkative man. We spoke with Kevin Costner to learn how his character can say so much without ever needing to speak.
"George is like a lot of men. He is the leader of the family, but his wife runs the show." Even so, as the couple embarks on their unlikely rescue mission, "he knows at the end of the day, he can stop something or start something." Ultimately, Costner says of the film's themes, "we have to be careful with one another. Even when we feel like our cause is righteous, we could be taking ourselves to a place we shouldn’t be… and we pay a price for that.”
Soon, Costner's character encounters the head of a very different household. That's Blanche Weboy, played by the incredible Lesley Manville, who told us her character is "the real matriarch.” She added, "What [Blanche] says goes, and everything in the Weboy family’s life is tinged with stuff that is just on the wrong side of the law."
Writer/director Thomas Bezucha worked with the cast to get fantastic performances. He spoke with us about the factor that made him want to adapt the novel by Larry Watson. "It was such a simple story," the director says. "It felt biblical to me that this child is taken from Diane and Kevin, and they have to go to hell to bring him home.”
Check out our full interview with Kevin Costner and Lesley Manville for LET HIM GO:
LET HIM GO is in theatres on November 6!
All images courtesy of Focus Features.