The actor Christopher Nolan called “criminally underappreciated”
Anyone lucky enough to become a big-name director with complete creative control is often placed in the unique position of hiring their favourite actors for their projects for no other reason than they can, which may explain one notable Christopher Nolan casting decision.
That’s not to say the filmmaker is like a kid in a candy store selecting his ensemble based on what they mean to him at the expense of merit, but he still handpicked a performer who’d appeared in two of his favourite-ever movies to become part of his world.
As well as singling out the features that shaped him as a person, creative mind, and director, Nolan is also fond of a guilty pleasure or two. Whether it’s his adoration of the ongoing Fast & Furious adventures, his inability to look away whenever Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby is playing on television, or his borderline obsession with MacGruber, he’s not exactly what you’d call a film snob.
In fact, in addition to naming Blade Runner as one of the most impactful sci-fi movies he’s ever experienced, the multi-time Academy Award nominee also holds a special place in his heart for another ferocious genre flick with a plum role for Rutger Hauer, after naming The Hitcher as something he’ll never forget.
“As a teenager, I never questioned the logic of this 80’s chiller, but now it seems mind-bendingly arbitrary plot-wise,” he said. “However, it does feature the criminally underappreciated Rutger Hauer in his finest and most influential Euro-psycho performance this side of Blade Runner.” Fast forward two decades and the pair were now colleagues.
Nolan’s love of both Blade Runner and The Hitcher was manifested when he recruited Hauer to play unscrupulous Wayne Enterprises executive William Earle in Batman Begins, which must have been a real ‘pinch-me’ moment considering the prolific star was somebody he’d grown up watching.
Robert Harmon’s The Hitcher may have bombed and bombed hard at the box office, but it didn’t take long for the film to secure cult classic status. The straightforward story finds C. Thomas Howell’s driver picking up Hauer’s wanderer John Ryder, who comes right out and claims to be a serial killer.
After setting out his stall as the murderous sort, Howell’s Jim Halsey then witnesses Ryder murdering an entire family, which convinces him that the killer needs to be brought to justice regardless of how dangerous it eventually becomes.
It’s a B-tier schlocker in the most entertaining sort of way, and the fact neither its sequel nor Sean Bean-fronted remake were up to much confirmed that Hauer’s performance was one of the main driving forces as to why. It isn’t the late actor’s greatest turn, but it comfortably ranks among his most memorable.
