>He always just played himself
This always felt like a bogus criticism to me.
This is true of most actors, including and especially the most revered actors of the time. When you see Cary Grant in a movie, he's always Cary Grant. When you see James Stewart, he's James Stewart. Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, etc. You know what you're getting when you cast them and when you watch them. John Wayne actually had more range than most of them.
*cough*
Pic related is a true actor because he disappears so entirely into each role that a lot of people don't realize he's in a lot of the same movies even with his super distinctive voice. That's a talent you can't fake.
I've only seen him on The Drew Carey show, Napoleon Dynamite, and I think Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
>Ooh what a lovely tea party!
Didn't even register that that was him until now kek
That's the difference between a lead and a character actor.
This motherfricker here is the master of dissapearing in his own movies.
Best actor in history, with honorable mention to Michael Caine
Literally who
Wait that just proves your point, frick
HOLY SHIT Office Space!
Two chicks at the same time.
>played himself
you mean a draft dodging homosexual?
He signed up for service, so no. Have you?
>dying for the ZOG is le good
apparently that's what wayne thought considering how hard he shilled for the war
What is wrong with just being the tough leader guy? Wayne never needed to be more than that type of inate leading actor, no actor does really
i read something Wayne said once and i doubt i'll get the quote exact but it was something like "people don't come to my movies to watch me act, they come to my movies to see John Wayne".
That's also true of most leading men. Lots of movies, you watch for the actors and actresses.
He also said something along the lines of "I must be an okay actor if I've made it this far"
i think Wayne's point was, he knows he's not really an actor, his producers and directors know he's not really much of an actor, and none of them cared because nobody wanted to see him act anyways. they wanted to watch him, be himself.
the one time i think he tried to act was as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror and of course the movie flopped. who the frick would want to see John Wayne playing a mongolian warlord? lol
>i think Wayne's point was, he knows he's not really an actor, his producers and directors know he's not really much of an actor, and none of them cared because nobody wanted to see him act anyways. they wanted to watch him, be himself.
You're putting a kind of sinister spin on it when, again, this was true of most actors. You like an actor, you'll go see them in the next film. Daniel Day-Lewis is a great actor, but you're going to watch a Daniel Day-Lewis film for Daniel Day-Lewis, to watch him do his trademark screams and scowls. That's how most box office draws work, whether it's Tom Cruise, Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Christian Bale, etc
Much like Peter O'Toole's character in My Favorite Year:
>I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star!
Classic Peter, never shy about who he was, he'd walk around the set sinking
>I'm not taking my Peter off, I am Peter O'Toole!
I bet he sang it with a band too. A big band, with lots of faith and money. a Faith Currency Band perchance.
he had rizz
>John Wayne actually had more range than most of them.
Cary Grant could effortlessly do comedy, romance, thrillers and drama or any mix of them and was able work with numerous directors. Wayne barely could do anything outside of Howdy Pardner. The quiet man is the one exception to the rule and you more than likely can thank Ford for it.
>Wayne barely could do anything outside of Howdy Pardner. The quiet man is the one exception to the rule and you more than likely can thank Ford for it.
The Shepherd of the Hills, Reap the Wild Wind, Pittsburgh, Sands of Iwo Jima, Wake of the Red Witch, The Conqueror, Legend of the Lost, Hatari!, Blood Alley, Hellfighters, Brannigan. He didn't just play the same cowboy character for 180 films. Cary Grant was way more typecast.
The Long Voyage Home was also a good role of his, where he plays a Swedish sailor very atypically of any other role he's done
>Cary Grant was way more typecast
Jimmy here is the worst case. Worse still is that imo he was a very good actor with a good range, but he kept playing the same character his whole career
You stick with what works, if you are a singles hitter then you should try to hit singles
>hit singles
Pathetic, check them
Except when he did westerns. Rear Window is also fairly different role for him.
It's kind of crazy to me that Vertigo is widely acknowledged to be one one of the greatest films of all time yet I hardly see anybody talk about just how commanding of a performance Jimmy Stewart is in that movie.
>He didn't just play the same cowboy character for 180 films.
I didn’t say he did. I said he could barely do anything else (well) besides his cowboy persona.
He started and ended with westerns but he did all kinds of roles, and even "his cowboy persona" differed between movies.
Donovan's Reef is also a good Romcom of his. Liked more than any Carey Grant Romantic Comedy I've seen. Thought his chemistry with Elizabeth Allen was great and liked how they tackled the age gap between the two.
Nice, I still have to see that one
>Donovan's Reef is also a good Romcom of his. Liked more than any Carey Grant Romantic Comedy I've seen
Donovan’s Reef is a terrible comedy and Wayne is way too old for the romance to feel even a bit realistic or believable.
You could be talking about Charade just as well
Is it really an Audrey Hepburn romcom if her romantic interest isn't far older than her. Breakfast at Tiffany's was one of the few exceptions to the rule.
Charade actually works because it’s a thriller with some comedy elements, plus Hepburn is the one chasing after Grant and they do have chemistry.
>Hepburn is the one chasing after Grant and they do have chemistry.
The backlash over their pairing made Cary Grant retire from acting
No it didn’t. He retired after Walk, Don’t Run which was three years and two pictures later. His reservations about the 25 year age difference was also added to be a clear part of the story rather than pretend the age difference didn’t exist which iirc Donovan’s Reef did. In fairness to Wayne I think he similarly had some issues with his age difference but didn’t do anything about it.
I'm the only one that considers Charade a lesser version of 'how to steal a million'?
They act so natural together. Plus throughout the plot they bond in all sorts of ways from sightseeing to helping the child characters with their problems.
>helping the child characters with their problems.
Another credit to John Wayne, he was great with children, both on screen and on set.
Johnny Depp is night and day different in every role he plays. Edward Scissors Hands is nothing like Jack Sparrow which is nothing like Wade Walker in Cry Baby.
He is just not especially good in most of them, but yes, challenging and original filmography nevertheless
>An ardent anti-communist and vocal supporter of the House Un-American Activities Committee, he made Big Jim McLain (1952) with himself as a HUAC investigator to demonstrate his support for the cause of anti-communism. His personal views found expression as a proactive inside enforcer of the "Black List", denying employment and undermining careers of many actors and writers who had expressed their personal political beliefs earlier in life.
>In 1971, Wayne wrote to President Richard Nixon, who was a friend, to oppose Nixon's planned trip to China. Wayne enclosed some hate literature on "that israelite, Kissinger," who had negotiated the historic meeting with Chinese leaders.
>I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. ... I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from the Indians. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves
They still haven't forgiven him for Big Based McLain
>“I’d like to particularly ask you as well, because its related to the film industry, about that period in your career in Hollywood when you were to the forefront of the people who were blacklisting the alleged communists members of…” he said, before being cut off.
>Interrupting Michael mid-sentence, John hit back: “That’s not a true statement.
>“We were not blacklisting, they were,” he insisted.
>“Well, you were naming them,” Michael commented.
>John replied: “No, they were blacklisting. We didn’t name anybody. We stayed completely out of it and said ‘We are Americans’.
>“Anybody who wanted to join us was fine. We gave no names out to anybody at any time ever,” he said.
>Michael questioned: “When you look back at that now, John, at this place of time, are you proud of what happened in Hollywood at that time?”
>“I think it was probably a very necessary thing at the time because the radical liberals were going to take over our business,” John remarked.
>“At the time it seemed rather serious and they were getting themselves into a position where they could control who would do the writing,” he explained.
He was right every step of the way.
ofc you hire plumber to do a plumbing job, and not a fcking writer or someone
real question should be: is he playing himself because he only can play that, or is he playing himself because himself is the character they need for the movie?
Yeah they were actually stars. not like today where everyone is a meme