Cary Grant’s favourite ‘New Hollywood’ actors: “So much better than the ones in our day”
There is perhaps nobody more iconic from the golden era of Hollywood than Cary Grant, with the actor defining decades of cinema through his work with Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks. Whether it be through his portrayal of undercover agents in North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief or his charming characters in screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, the actor is one of the most beloved faces of a cinematic period that makes us yearn for simpler times, with an effortlessly charming and uplifting presence that defines the magic of this time.
With mesmerising on-screen partnerships with fellow actors like Katherine Hepburn, Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, Grant has been part of some of the most beloved movie couples and tangled romantic dramas on screen, with a dazzling sense of wit that has marked him as one of the greatest performers of all time.
However, while he is highly regarded for work in films like Charade, Notorious and countless other classics, the actor has described his love for modern performers associated with a whole other era in Hollywood, singing the praises of people from the New Hollywood Movement in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s.
While many of us admire the likes of Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Kelly and Gregory Peck, becoming swept up in the ridiculous misunderstandings, soaring love stories and dreamy dance sequences, Cary Grant has described his love for a cinematic decade that was tonally opposite to the work he starred in, expressing admiration for the New Hollywood movement and the daring films that challenged the studio system and injected risk back into American cinema.
Audiences associate performers like Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway and Dennis Hopper with this movement, becoming familiar with the controversial behind-the-scenes stories and mishaps that plagued these notorious productions. However, Grant has described his love for two actors in particular, saying, “The actors today are so much better than the ones in our day. I’m amazed at what Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson can do. In my day, out work was incredibly confined because we were so hurt by censorship. We weren’t allowed to show any passion. Whether or not the freedom is used wisely is another matter.”
This perhaps seems like a self-deprecating comment given his dismissal of the actors from his own generation, seemingly thinking of Hoffman and Nicholson as having more skill due to the nature of the roles they were given. You could argue that these darker and more dramatic roles don’t necessarily require more skill but just capitalise on a different kind of skill set that was more common in this era due to the popularisation of these stories.
Nicholson’s character in Chinatown is very similar to Grant’s characters in North by Northwest and To Catch a Thief, with Hitchcock’s investigative dramas no doubt influencing Polanski’s cold-blooded neo-noir drama.
However, who knows how Grant would have adapted to the changes in Hollywood during this decade? Perhaps the actor would have thrived in the gritty stories associated with this movement and found more in common with his heroes than he might have expected.
