Kevin Costner Thanks Production Designer Ida Random For Launching His Career in Emotional Tribute
Kevin Costner got to thank the woman he credits with launching his career at the 26th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards on March 6.
The Yellowstone star paid an emotional tribute to production designer Ida Random, who was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony. In his speech, he thanked Random for the small moment that “changed the trajectory” of his career on set of the 1981 film Frances.
“For six years I’d been trying to break into Hollywood, and despite all my best efforts, I was just unable to get a SAG card,” he said, according to Deadline. Random was the art director on the film, and apparently was the sole reason Costner ended up getting one speaking line delivered to Jessica Lange.
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“I’m singled out among the extras by casting director Elizabeth Leustig, who would later go on to become my casting director on Dances With Wolves,” Costner said. “She walked me up to Ida, who I couldn’t help but notice on the set having been there for three days. She [Ida] was really Annie Hall before there was Annie Hall, if you know what I mean. She always seemed to be around the camera and without notice she would move into the set as if no one was watching, pick up a book, and move it. In fact she would pick up anything — lamps, ashtrays, pictures…Anything that seemed to be bothering her she would just move it, maybe inches.”
“Suddenly I find myself standing in front of her, and she’s looking at me, and it’s safe to say that I had gone from thinking she might be in trouble [for moving things] to now wondering if I was,” he continued. “She looked at me in a very real way, and I don’t know how else to describe it. I had no idea what I had done or what she was looking for…What she couldn’t have possibly known as I waited for her to speak was how shamefully desperate I was to be seen as an actor.”
“After a long moment — an Ida Random moment, you’d have have to see one to know one — she turned to Elizabeth said ‘This works,'” the Oscar winner added.
Random’s approval of Costner in that short moment is what landed him his “Goodnight, Frances” line.
“And it would change the trajectory of my career,” the visibly emotional Costner said.
“I’ll never forget you, Ida. You changed my life that night,” he said. “That’s what Ida does: She changes lives. She makes things better, sometimes by inches…She’s the director’s best friend and confidant. She’s the actor’s biggest cheerleader as she walks them through her perfect sets…You’re a filmmaker in every sense of the word, adding your most personal touch to the movies you call your paintings.”
After that first fateful moment, Costner and Random went on to work together on his various directorial efforts, including The Postman. Random was the production designer on Rain Man, Wyatt Earp, The Big Chill, The War of the Roses, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and more.
