It ‘Completely Threw Me Off’ (Exclusive): Why Luke Wilson Wasn’t Sure Kevin Costner Had Cast Him in Horizon

Job interviews in Hollywood can be a bit confusing — at least according to Luke Wilson.

The new Wild West epic Horizon, from writer-director-star Kevin Costner, “definitely is different from stuff I've done before,” the actor, 52, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s issue.

“I've done dramas and done a couple low budget Westerns and one comedic western with Adam Sandler,” he says, in reference to 2015’s The Ridiculous 6. “But yeah, I certainly had never done anything like this.”

Horizon, a multi-part story with Chapter 1 hitting theaters June 28 and Chapter 2 to follow Aug 16, features Wilson as one of many actors playing the frontiersmen circa the American Civil War who undertook the expansion and settlement of the West. It costars Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Ella Hunt, Danny Huston, Tom Payne, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Will Patton and more.

Of Costner, 69, Wilson says, “Of course I grew up as a big fan.” That’s why after reading the Horizon scripts, a Zoom meeting with the Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves filmmaker was more than a little intimidating, as he recalls.

“I was on location in New Jersey and Kevin was on location in Utah for Horizon, and we had a Zoom,” he says. “I considered it a job interview. He might have known that he was hiring me. I didn't.”

Speaking with the paternal Costner — who, per Wilson, “was just reminding me of how focused my dad could be” — the actor was “t -

Former American Ninja Warrior Champion D,...

rying to put my best foot forward with Kevin and talk to him about the script.”

Then, it suddenly seemed that Costner had set up the meeting to confirm, rather than decide, Wilson’s casting as Matthew Van Weyden. “He said, ‘Well, I hope you'll want to come work with me.’ And I was just kind of sitting there. I thought, ‘Shoot, this guy just offered me the job!’ ”

The awkward moment, adds Wilson, “Then completely threw me off. And I just muttered, ‘Oh. Hell yeah, hell yeah.’ That's how I got started on it.”

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Calling Horizon “a great, one-of-a-kind thing for me to be a part of,” Wilson reflects on how his start in the industry began a full 30 years ago, when his brother Owen Wilson and their longtime writer-director collaborator Wes Anderson made the 1994 short film and 1996 feature film Bottle Rocket.

“I'm 52 now and I think I've been doing this since I was 22 or 23.” It’s refreshing, he says, “This far into the game, to have a completely new and totally invigorating experience — and of course, a real challenge.”

Following its Cannes Film Festival premiere in May, Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is in theaters June 28.

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