Kevin Costner reveals filming 'Hidden Figures' on morphine due to severe kidney stones

Kevin Costner has opened up about the tough conditions he faced while filming the critically acclaimed 2016 drama, Hidden Figures. 

In a recent video with PEOPLE, the actor revealed that he was battling kidney stones and on a morphine drip for the last two weeks of shooting.

"I've never worked drunk on a set. I've never worked high on a set, but I was on morphine the last two weeks that I worked on Hidden Figures,” Costner admitted. 

“I had kidney stones and I worked 10 days under an IV drip. I don't even know how.”

Costner, who played Al Harrison, the fictional director of NASA’s Space Task Group, recounted that he felt normal for only about three days before his health deteriorated. 

Despite the pain, he did not miss a single day of work. “I didn’t miss a day of work — I’ve never missed a day of work — and then when I thought I was gonna be off it, a second kidney stone came, which I never had, and I was right back on it,” he recalled. 

“So I sat in my trailer with a morphine drip in my arm.”

The IV treatment left bruises on his arms, which affected his appearance in the film. 

“I eventually had to have my sleeves down in the movie as opposed to rolled up because of that,” he said. "I wanted to cry, but there was everybody watching, so I didn't."

Hidden Figures, based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s 2006 nonfiction book, tells the true story of three Black female mathematicians working at NASA during the Space Race. 

The film starred Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe, with Costner, Kirsten Dunst, and Jim Parsons playing their NASA colleagues.

Since the release of Hidden Figures, Costner has remained dedicated to his craft, most recently with his new Western epic, Horizon: An American Saga, which he co-wrote, directed, and largely funded himself. 

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Costner expressed a relaxed attitude towards the film’s box office performance. 

"I've lived with movies and what happens to them on their opening weekend," he said.

"If we put so much pressure on that, we're bound to be disappointed. I'm really happy that Horizon looks like what it's supposed to look like, and that's the way it'll look the rest of its life. And that's really important to me in this process."