Movie star KEVIN COSTNER refused to play the glamorous assassinated President in the new film THIRTEEN DAYS claiming that he was too well-known.

Costner, 45, ironically appeared as prosecutor JIM GARRISON in the OLIVER STONE film JFK (91). Costner reveals, "It was clear that I shouldn't play Kennedy. In my mind I've had too much interface with my public to play such an iconic person. "The appetite that exists would be a gigantic criticism, maybe positive or negative but it would've focused on how I played him. And, to me, the vanity of that would've outstripped the importance of the movie and that's why I didn't want to play that role and that's why I didn't want to direct the movie."

Instead, the role went to a lesser known actor, DOUBLE JEOPARDY star BRUCE GREENWOOD, and Costner played Special Assistant to the late President, KENNETH P. O'DONNELL.

(RXM/WN/PDD)

Source: WENN