Kevin Costner shares what he was thinking during Cannes standing ovation

Kevin Costner was moved to near tears when he received an 11-minute standing ovation for his new movie, Horizon: An American Saga over the weekend.

The veteran actor, 69, reflected on the moment during his recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“I actually started walking my life backwards for a second,” Costner recalled, adding, “I kind of went back to the beginning and wondering, you know, how I even ended up at a place like that.”

He continued, “We all have these dreams where we want to be. And I’ve had my own. And I’ve taken some really big bites out of life. And life has taken some pretty big bites out of me.”

But despite the hurdles – most recently his messy divorce with wife-of-two-decades Christine Baumgartner – Costner persevered.

“I just kind of keep going,” he noted. “And when they started the clap and they didn’t stop, I didn’t really know what…”

He then hilariously responded to the clip of himself during the ovation – his eyes flooded with tears.

“And I didn’t f***ing cry. I didn’t cry. My eyes were full,” he quipped as Kimmel joined in the banter.

He concluded, “But I was moved by what happened in France. I was moved by the biggest film festival in the world.”

Costner directed and starred in Horizon: An American Saga, which is set for release on June 28, 2024.