Kevin Costner's son is named after his character in 'Horizon'.

The 69-year-old actor cast his son Hayes, 15 - whose mother is Costner's ex Christine Baumgartner - in his latest film 'Horizon: An American Saga' and revealed he has been working on the idea so long that Hayes actually got his name from the main character.

He told HELLO! magazine: "He had never acted before but he did a good job. It's a small part but I was glad to be able to help him and that he was able to be with me on this, and that he was able to follow the level of direction that I was able to give him.

"Hayes actually gets his name from my character in this, Hayes Ellison. That's how long I've been working on this project. It's a story I've wanted to tell since before he was born. It's beautiful that he's here to help me tell it."

Kevin spent millions of his own money on the movie and revealed he was so passionate about the project that he didn't care about spending his own cash.

He said: "It was so hard to get people to believe in the movie that I wanted to make.

"I made this movie for me, but I also make it for the people, for audiences. It was the same with 'Dances with Wolves', 'Field of Dreams', 'Bull Durham', 'Open Range'. I never think my movie is better than anybody else's movie, but I don't think anybody else's movie is better than mine. It just so happens that my moves are harder to make.

"My problem is that if I think something is good, I have to do it anyway.

"But I'm lucky. I've been lucky in life and I've acquired some things - land, four homes. I'm at a point where I don't need four homes so I'm willing to take a risk to make my movies. Ideally, I want to leave those homes to my children but they live their own lives. Hopefully this will go well and I won't lose any homes, but it is a risk.

"I'm passionate about the work, sure. I still like it."