Kevin Costner kept faith amid adversity − ‘We’re going to be tested’

Before Kevin Costner rode into the sunset on “Yellowstone,” earned two Oscars for “Dances With Wolves,” beckoned bygone baseball stars to a cornfield, or slept in a camper on Sunset Boulevard while dreaming of Hollywood fame, the seed for stardom was planted at church.“I think I was about 4 years old when I was selected to be a shepherd in our church’s yearly production of the Nativity,” he says in ABC’s “Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas.” “Would be my acting debut, and I would have one line, ‘Hark!’”

We all think we know [the story],” Costner tells USA TODAY. “We all wait for this time of year and then we get mad at it, too, because now it’s ‘so much stuff I have to do, and I hate this.’ It’s ‘too many people are coming to the house.’ There’s this other story that changed the world, a lot of the world.”The two-hour special premiering Dec. 9 (8 ET/PT and streaming the next day on Hulu and Disney+) splices a portrayal of Jesus’ birth with context from experts and commentary from Costner. Working on “The First Christmas” lit the actor up like a Christmas tree.