The 1979 role Harvey Keitel couldn’t be blackmailed into playing: “I would’ve been a star, and bankable!”
Harvey Keitel’s first role and leading part came with Martin Scorsese’s debut feature, Who’s That Knocking at My Door, resulting in his film industry entrance as forever enmeshed with the beginning of the New Hollywood era
He’d soon bag an uncredited role in Robert Altman’s Brewster McCloud, but it was Scorsese who really helped put him on the map, casting him in his next few pictures, most notably Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. As the filmmaker moved out from the independent scene and into the Hollywood mainstream, Keitel seemed set to match this trajectory, but he was always hesitant.
He’d landed a major role in Ridley Scott’s The Duelists, with parts across westerns and crime dramas keeping the actor afloat, but then there came an offer he initially couldn’t refuse. But he eventually did, sticking to his guns and rejecting the chance to be a huge, bankable star.
Keitel was cast as Captain Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s legendary anti-war film Apocalypse Now, but when he was told by the director that he’d have to sign a contract with his new studio, he was unimpressed. “He said, ‘Sign it, or I’ll fire you’,” Keitel revealed (via CBS News), so he allowed himself to be fired, and Martin Sheen, of course, took on the role instead.
Even though the actor really wanted the part, and Apocalypse Now would soon become lauded as one of the best movies ever made, he didn’t want to be signed up to this specific contract, as much as it would’ve aided his career as a Hollywood icon. When asked if he has any regrets, Keitel replied, “Yeah, I would’ve been a star, and bankable!”
Ultimately, he knew that it was for the best, though, saying, “But there was a big reward there. I got through it. I didn’t wanna be owned by anybody. And no actor should be owned by anybody”, and as a result, he worked in many indie productions over the coming years, even contributing a significant amount to the production of Quentin Tarantino’s debut, Reservoir Dogs.
Of course, Keitel has found himself a place in Hollywood just fine, balancing indie productions with bigger ones, and as a result, he can be spotted in everything from Pulp Fiction and Sister Act to The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Irishman.
In fact, his career is arguably much more impressive because of his integrity, so even if he missed out on Apocalypse Now, which he wishes he could’ve been a part of, Keitel is wise, and he knew he had to make the right decision, above everything.
He had a lucky escape, though, because in spite of the movie’s eventual success, the production was rather cursed, and Sheen even experienced a heart attack at the age of 36 as a result of the physical and mental toll that filming had on him.
