By Erin Free
“To go on about acting as art is ridiculous,” Kurt Russell once said. “If it is an art, then it’s a very low form. You don’t have to be gifted just to hit a mark and say a line. Anyone who finds acting difficult just shouldn’t be doing it.”
Tough, charismatic and unconventional, Kurt Russell skillfully and seamlessly walks the line between comedy and drama, and has never delivered a dud performance. Though he doesn’t reel in millions, the workmanlike actor is one of the most reliable and well-liked Hollywood actors working. He was raised in Rangeley, Maine by mother Louise Crone (a dancer) and father Bing Russell, a character actor best known for the western TV series Bonanza. Russell’s film career began at the age of ten when he kicked Elvis Presley in the leg in 1963’s It Happened At The World’s Fair, and by the age of twelve, he was a TV star with a major role on the TV western, The Travels Of Jaimie McPheeters.
After the success of that show, Russell was signed to a ten-year contract with Disney, where he starred in sixties family favourites like Follow Me, Boys!, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, and The Strongest Man In The World. Sick of the Disney grind, the athletically gifted Russell dropped out of acting and took on a professional baseball career in the seventies, until a shoulder injury took him off the field and back to his first profession. In 1977, Russell ironically (considering his first role) starred as Elvis Presley in director John Carpenter’s acclaimed television film, Elvis, which kick-started his second career phase as a “serious actor.” After Elvis, Russell teamed again with John Carpenter on two modern classics: the sci-fi action flick, Escape From New York, and the horror masterpiece, The Thing, which remain two of his finest performances. Since then, Russell has delivered a string of fine, often underrated portrayals: he was tough and commanding in Backdraft, Tombstone, Poseidon and Dark Blue; powerfully effective in Silkwood, The Mean Season, Swing Shift, Miracle, and Tequila Sunrise; surprisingly funny in Overboard, Tango & Cash, Used Cars, Big Trouble In Little China, and Captain Ron; and totally off the charts in Death Proof and this week’s DVD release, The Hateful Eight, his two films with Quentin Tarantino.
But what about the less celebrated films on his resume? What are some of Kurt Russell’s favourites when it comes to his own unsung films? “I’m beginning to have people come up to me, now, and say, ‘I just saw Death Proof; that was great,’” Russell told FilmInk upon the release of The Hateful Eight. “I like to hear that. [The 1997 thriller] Breakdown was very successful. I can’t say that it wasn’t. It was very successful when it came out, but that’s a movie that I’m really proud of. It’s a really good movie to watch, and it doesn’t get talked about that much anymore. I also did a movie for Disney, years back [in 2005], called, Sky High. I always thought was hysterical. I love when people see it, and they all say the same thing – that it’s really funny. Now, that movie did well, but it wasn’t a monster hit or anything. So, I’d think of those two off the top of my head.”
Kurt Russell is no stranger to the late discovery of his work. “I’ve done a lot of movies that became cult type movies, cult hits,” the actor tells FilmInk. “I’m glad that there’s DVD. Maybe some of my films couldn’t be promoted at the time of their release. There wasn’t a lot of money behind them, maybe it was the time when they were released, or they were ahead of their time. Big Trouble In Little China was one of those films. People loved it, but at the same time, the studio had no idea how to promote that. I was actually told by some people in the publicity department that it was purposely sabotaged. Any number of things can be a reason that a movie doesn’t catch on at the time, but it does later on. The fact that it has its life and that it is seen and appreciated by people who find it is great. What’s nice about that is that can people can feel like they found something…it’s like they’ve found a nice bottle of wine. It was in the cellar, and they said, ‘Look at this!’ Then they open it up and it’s fantastic, and they go, ‘Wow, what a great surprise!’ There’s a value to those movies that, sometimes, is perhaps even better than the bigger films.”
The Hateful Eight is available on Blu-ray and DVD from May 25.
