The actor Kurt Russell called the second coming of Marlon Brando: “If I were to call anybody”
There’s no shortage of actors who’d happily point towards Marlon Brando as the greatest there’s ever been, and Kurt Russell is just one of the many icons who don’t think anyone has had more of an impact on the profession than the seminal method man.
Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Jack Nicholson are undoubtedly three of the best actors to have graced the silver screen, but they’d never refer to either themselves or one of the others as the cream of the crop when the ghost of Brando is still looming over the art of performance.
Russell may not be revered to a similar extent as the aforementioned quartet in terms of his dramatic capabilities, but that doesn’t make him any less of an important figure in modern cinema history. After all, he’s the king of the cult classic with several iconic characters under his belt, and he’s been working solidly for seven decades after graduating from Elvis Presley and Walt Disney to John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino.
The genre favourite is, was, and might always be among the most famous stars to never be shortlisted for an Academy Award, and he seems fine with it. Russell’s legacy was secured a long time ago, and while it’s hardly a secret that Brando is his consensus pick for the best there’s ever been, what’s maybe not as well known is his candidate for the Godfather and On the Waterfront figurehead’s second coming.
“If I were to call anybody the Brando of our generation,” he pondered to Entertainment Weekly. “It would be Meryl Streep.” The two worked together on Mike Nichols’ 1983 biographical drama Silkwood, and as almost always tends to be the case when the leading lady takes a high-profile part in a drama, she ended up on the Oscars shortlist for ‘Best Actress’.
Streep has won more Oscars than Brando, been nominated more times than anybody else, male or female, and is in similar territory as one of those actors spoken about by their peers in hushed, reverential, and almost deified tones. Also, much like Brando, Streep recoils at being labelled as the benchmark everybody else should seek to emulate.
Russell never got the chance to work with his hero, although he did fancy stepping into his shoes when he said he’d love to “take on Marlon Brando” when rumours swirled that he was potentially being eyed to play Jor-El in James Gunn’s Superman, inheriting the mantle originally worn by the troublesome actor when he insisted that a sentient bagel was the best way to make the most of his multi-million dollar contract on Richard Donner’s original.
He’s only worked with Streep once, and even at that, maintaining an eye on her career from afar has left Russell completely and utterly convinced that she’s the closest thing to an heir the industry has produced.
