“Horizon”'s Owen Crow Shoe praises Kevin Costner's 'homework' and 'intimate' look at lives of Native Americans

"He does a great job of getting a close-up, intimate look at the everyday lives of not only the Native Americans but everybody that was living duohhhring those times," Shoe says of Costner.

Owen Crow Shoe always dreamed of making a movie with Kevin Costner.

Shoe, who got his start acting as a stunt rider in The Revenant, grew up watching Costner's Oscar-winning Dances With Wolves.

"I've always been a huge, huge fan," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "I've seen it multiple, multiple times, and every time, it never gets old. I always pick up something new every time I watch it."

Shoe is from the Piikani Nation and Blood Tribe of the Blackfoot Confederacy, but he remembers the great pride of the people of the Lakota Nation surrounding Dances With Wolves.

"If Kevin Costner calls, you're going to do it," he quips. "I know the homework that he does and puts into making a Native American portrayal as accurate as he can. Because looking at Dances With Wolves, that's a huge thing for the Lakota people. They're really proud of that because they're speaking accurate and fluent Lakota in the film."

Shoe had to learn the language of the White Mountain Apache for Horizon: An American Saga, having never heard it spoken before. Costner brought in two coaches, Aurelia Bullis and Elva Case, who specialize in the language, to work with the actors so that he could ensure the Native American characters were speaking as accurately as possible.

"I was coming in learning a brand new language," Shoe says. "It was a lot. We did Zoom calls for a month straight, and then we were in the classroom when I got out here [to set] for about two weeks. The patience that they had with us was phenomenal. It must've been like teaching babies.

"There's something like over 500 different native languages all over North America that are different from each other and also completely different from any Latin-based language," he continues. "They all have their own different sounds, and you have to pick it up and make sure not only that your dialect is right but that you're hitting it with the right accent."

Warner Bros Owen Crow Shoe as Pionsenay in 'Horizon: An American Saga'

In Chapter 1, Shoe portrays Pionsenay, a fierce warrior who leads a deadly attack on the settlement of Horizon and ultimately splits from his own tribe over their disagreements about how to deal with the invading settlers.

When asked to describe his character, Shoe says, "Originally, he's a peaceful warrior, and he doesn't take too well to violence. He wants to keep the violence away as much as he can, and he doesn't want to fight if he doesn't have to. But his perspective starts to change as the settlers start making their way over, and he is starting to notice that the world around him is changing.

"He believes that they can't just sit idly by while the settlers are making their way West," he continues. "He tried to keep the peace. He doesn't want to lose any Apache lives if he doesn't have to, but he makes the choice to be the resistance against the westward expansion because of the things that he's seen. One of them, in particular, is Apaches fighting Apaches over the limited resources left on the land. That's the last straw to make him see that we have to fight. So that's where we find him now."

Though the film still portrays Native characters, including Pionsenay, as arbiters of violence, it also provides context for their actions and seeks to show the conflicts within their own people over how best to deal with these invaders. It's for this reason that Shoe feels Horizon bucks the stereotypes of traditional Westerns.

"We were always portrayed as one dimensional — that we're out there to be warriors and be stoic and kill, but that's only one perspective that's always been shown," he reflects. "[Kevin] does a great job of really diving into getting a nice close-up, intimate look at the everyday lives of not only the Native Americans but everybody that was living during those times. And how tough a day-to-day life was back then.

"He also did a really good job portraying how we were one with the land. Before the settlers came over, we were doing perfectly fine," Shoe continues. "We were there for thousands of years, and we knew the land like the back of our hands — where the resources were, when the herd of deer or whatever animal we're hunting would be, when it would be where. Everything was so connected back then."

Shoe notes that they also had a historical advisor, Dr. Bearshield, on hand. "Dr. Bearshield worked closely with Kevin on making sure that everything was positive and that there wasn't going to be any bad stereotypes or anything like that," he explains. "The diligence that Dr. Bearshield has is if there's something going wrong, he won't take no for an answer. He'll make sure that the representation is spot on."

Warner Bros Owen Crow Shoe as Pionsenay in 'Horizon: An American Saga'

The actor, who is making his debut as a main character in a film, also has nothing but praise for Costner's approach to directing. Shoe describes the multi-hyphenate as consistently "lighthearted" no matter what is happening on set. But most notably, he praises Costner's openness and willingness to let Shoe try different things with his scenes.

"He works really fast," Shoe explains. "If he likes what he sees, he's like, 'We got it. We're moving on.' One particular setup, I did the scene maybe three times, and he was like, 'Yeah, we got it. Let's move on.' And I told him, 'Before we move on, I was thinking maybe I'll try this, and I'll address these people as well as this guy in front of me, and I'll do a little gesture.' And he was like, 'Yeah, okay, I like that. Let's set it up. Let's do that.'

"At that point, I felt a little more comfortable that I could explore the character a lot more and do it my way," he continues. "Because every time after that, before we moved on to the next setup, he'd be like, 'Okay, Owen, do you want to try anything else?'"

From the costumes to the props to their location shoot in southern Utah, Shoe says that every aspect of the production was meticulously planned with accuracy in mind, making it extremely easy to get into character.

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Shoe will return for Chapter 2 of the saga when it hits theaters on Aug. 16. His character, Pionsenay, has now formed his own offshoot of his tribe, setting off with those who also wish to fight against the settlers invading their land. He's also being stalked by a group of those settlers looking for revenge for the attack on Horizon.

Shoe won't say whether that comes to a head but merely teases, "You'll definitely notice him maturing a lot more in his decision-making in the next few installments. But he's still sticking to his roots because he knows from his point of view what's right and what's wrong. He really steps into the leadership role a lot more in the next few to come."

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.