The actor John Wayne claimed that everybody copied: “He looks like a method player”
With his signature drawl and iconic swagger, John Wayne became fair game for countless comedians and impressionists during his time as a cinematic superstar, but nobody would have dared try to replicate the actor’s inimitable performative style.
That being said, ‘The Duke’ was happy to admit he lifted almost all of his tricks and techniques from his close friend and regular collaborator Harry Carey, but he nonetheless put his own distinct spin on those mannerisms to cultivate the persona that led him to the very top of the industry.
In the latter years of his career, though, Wayne became decidedly less enthusiastic about what the business was evolving into. He’d maintained his position as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood because audiences knew exactly what to expect whenever they saw his name splashed across a poster, which led him to turn down several iconic roles as a result.
At the same time, a combination of the burgeoning ‘New Hollywood’ movement and the adoption of the method by the current crop of stars-in-waiting forever altered the complexion of cinema, and Wayne didn’t care for it one bit. Ironically, Lee Strasberg was a fan of both Wayne and Henry Cooper, who were hardly what anybody would call method actors.
The godfather of the immersive approach to acting described them as “perfectly natural,” as well as possessing a gift that couldn’t be taught. For Strasberg, Wayne and Cooper “try not to act, but be themselves.” Still, during an interview on The Merv Griffin Show in 1966, The Duke couldn’t help but praise one star while taking aim at an entire generation at the same time.
“The fella that invented that method acting said that Coop and I were the best method actors, but we had our own tricks,” Wayne explained to the host. “But the thing is, they’re all copying that poor guy that played in Mutiny on the Bounty.” They may have treated their profession from vastly different perspectives, but even The Duke couldn’t deny the talents of Marlon Brando.
“They all copy him. This guy is great, but they all copy him so he looks like a method player,” he continued. “Nobody copied Coop, and certainly nobody’s been stupid enough to copy me.” He’s right to a certain extent because there definitely is only one Wayne and one Cooper, but at the same time, there remains only one Brando.
The list of legends to have cited the On the Waterfront and The Godfather figurehead as their hero is one of the longest in Tinseltown, with his influence still being felt to this day. Everybody may have tried to copy Brando in one way or the other, but much like ‘The Duke’, he was a truly one-of-a-kind presence that’s been often imitated but never duplicated.
