Kevin Costner recalls how difficult it was to get 'Bull Durham' made: 'Everybody rejected it'

Bull Durham almost never made it to the Show.

The beloved 1988 sports comedy, released 35 years ago Thursday and starring Kevin Costner as an embittered journeyman AAA catcher who takes a promising aspiring pro (Tim Robbins) under his mitt, was rejected by every Hollywood studio before it was finally produced for a tiny budget, the now 68-year-old star told us in a Role Recall interview looking back at his career hits.

“When I read that script, I knew it was great. Problem was, we couldn’t get anyone to make that,” Costner said (watch below, with Bull Durham beginning at 1:32). “Ron Shelton, who wrote it, took it around to all the studios twice, and everybody rejected it. And there was a moment where both [he] and I had to say, ‘Well, I guess no one’s gonna make this.'

“We ended up making it for like $6 million or something like that. [The budget, according to Shelton, was between $8 and $9 million.]”

Susan Sarandon, who played Annie Savoy – the baseball groupie who comes between Crash Davis (Costner) and Nuke (Robbins) — shared the film’s underdog mentality.

“The studio thought everybody but me could have played Annie Savoy,” the actress told us in a separate Role Recall interview about Orion Pictures, the MGM subsidiary that ultimately financed the film.

“I was at the bottom of the list, but everybody else turned it down, because they didn't want to read. And Ron Shelton, who at that time was a first-time director, felt that he wanted Kevin to read with everybody, and read a lot. I was living in Italy at the time and flew myself over. Paid for my trip. I had a small child, so as soon as I got there, I did read the entire script with Kevin, turned around, got back on the plane, and like a day later, they told me that I had gotten it.”

Costner was particularly passionate about the story given his own love for baseball — Durham would mark the first of three of his sandlot-based films, with 1989’s Field of Dreams and 1999’s For the Love of the Game to follow.

The actor rarely stopped playing, even when cameras weren’t rolling — at one point starting a contest with extras on the film who’d attempt to steal a base on him.

“I was having a game inside the game with myself,” he says. “If I saw a guy just hanging out [leading off] and I’d say, ‘Go ahead, steal it.’ It suddenly turned into a game. Guys started coming out of the dugout, and then they were taking too big a lead. I said, ‘Hey, you can’t do that.’ I said, ‘If [the pitcher] throws you out, how 'bout you lose your role in the movie?’ The lead got shorter. Got more reasonable. And then the pitcher would throw it and I threw out about 25 out of 30 guys.”

Costner didn’t reveal if any of the day players thrown out actually lost their jobs, but according to internet lore, he did leave the cast’s young bat boy in tears after his hardened vet Crash Davis responded to his line “Get a hit, Crash” with a caustic “Shut up.”

“I don’t know that I made him cry,” Costner said. “I was convincing with my line… We weren’t making The Natural, where [the bat boy] says ‘Get a hit,’ and [Robert Redford] says, ‘I will, Billy.’ Not here. It’s like, ‘Get a hit.’ ‘Shut up.’ And if he cried, it was because maybe Ron didn’t tell him what I was supposed to say."