Los Angeles, Jun 30 (IANS): Actor-director-producer Kevin Costner’s career boasts Academy Awards over the course of 40 years, but there is one real-life performance that hasn’t attracted much attention.

In the 2016 film 'Hidden Figures', which tells the true story of three brilliant black women's contributions to the Space Race in the 1960s, Costner played the role of NASA official Al Harrison. It turns out he was sick during most of the shoot, reports 'People' magazine.

"I've never worked drunk on a set. I've never worked high on a set, but I was on morphine the last two weeks that I worked on 'Hidden Figures'," Kevin said.

According to 'People,' while filming, Costner developed kidney stones and said he "worked 10 days under an IV drip. I don't even know how. About three days of it, I was normal, and then something happened to me."

Despite his condition, Costner, known for his unflappable work ethic, "never missed a day of work" but admitted, "I sat in my trailer with a morphine drip in my arm."

He soon had to keep his sleeves rolled down while shooting to hide the IV bruising. "Eventually I had to," he recalled, acknowledging the experience was quite painful. "I wanted to cry, but there was everybody watching, so I didn't."

Despite the challenging circumstances, Costner, whose epic Western ‘Horizon: An American Saga’ opens this weekend, has fond memories of the shoot.

He loved re-teaming with Octavia Spencer, with whom he co-starred in the 2014 drama 'Black or White.'

Additionally, Costner praised 'Hidden Figures' director Theodore Melfi for being an ideal collaborator. "It was magic," he said.