The director who called Paul Newman a bad actor: “A handsome boy, but quite stiff”
You’d be surprised how many actors were initially told by casting directors or filmmakers that they didn’t have the potential to become a star. Oscar winners like Sidney Poitier and Gary Oldman were told they weren’t good enough actors to make it in the industry, and even Meryl Streep wasn’t deemed pretty enough for certain roles early in her career.
These actors’ stories are proof that you shouldn’t let criticism stop you from trying. Instead of giving up in the face of opposition and various obstacles, these future stars kept working hard and eventually they made it through. Of course, it’s not that simple, and many people certainly don’t get very far in the industry – which is full of prejudice and corruption – but many actors have at least proved that you shouldn’t give up straight away.
Take Paul Newman for example, who earned ten competitive Oscar nominations and won one for The Color of Money. He was one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation, beginning his career in the 1950s and making his final feature film performance in 2006 with a voice role as Doc Hudson in Cars.
Newman was known for his impeccable good looks; he was a sex symbol, crediting his wife Joanne Woodward for shaping him into a figure of eroticism that bled off the screen. “Joanne gave birth to a sexual creature. We left a trail of lust all over the place. Hotels and public parks and Hertz Rent-A-Cars,” he wrote in Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man.
In movies like The Long Hot Summer and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Newman sizzled with star power. With his tanned skin and shining gem-like blue eyes, Newman attracted plenty of attention, and his natural charisma only further emphasized his talent for commanding the screen.
However, in the early years of his career, several people in the industry believed that Newman’s good looks were the only thing he had going for himself. It’s hard to believe that some people didn’t believe in him, considering he went on to star in many iconic movies like Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and later in his career, The Verdict and Road to Perdition.
Fred Zinnemann, who directed movies like High Noon, Oklahoma!, The Nun’s Story, and Julia, thought that Newman wasn’t good enough to make it. “Paul Newman is a handsome boy, but quite stiff, to my disappointment,” he once said (via The Independent). Newman auditioned for the role of Curly in Oklahoma!, as did James Dean, but neither were deemed suitable for the role. It inevitably went to Gordon MacRae.
That wasn’t the only instance in which Newman was criticised near the start of his career. When the actor was the understudy for Ralph Meeker in the play Picnic, the director, Josh Logan, told him (via TIME), “You don’t carry any sexual threat.” Newman reportedly said, “I’ve been chewing on that one for 20 years.”
Newman soon showed these directors how little they knew, becoming both an acclaimed actor and a sex symbol, combining both of these qualities to assert his place in Hollywood as one of the industry’s most unforgettable stars.
